Flagellar proteins prediction after sequence-structure alignments of coronin and Arp2/3 complex in Leishmania spp.

Leishmania are uniflagellate protozoa, whose flagellum plays a key role in motility, being essential for parasite migration, invasion and persistence on host tissues. Actin is the major cytoskeleton protein, while polymerization and depolymerization of parasite actin and actin motor-associated proteins during both processes of motility and host cell entry might be key events for successful infection. In search for genomic and/or proteomic evidences of actin-interacting proteins (AIPs) involved in flagellar activities of Leishmania spp., we have applied computational tools (hidden Markov models, Viterbi algorithm and comparative modeling) to infer biological meaning through detailed sequence-structural-functional analyses on Leishmania AIPs, such as coronin and Arp2/3 complex proteins, two important elements on phagosome formation after parasite phagocytosis by macrophages. Results presented here provide the first integrated bioinformatics analyses of Leishmania coronin and Arp2/3 genes and their gene products, a direct contribution to genome annotation of these important actin-regulating proteins yet to be properly in vitro characterized in flagellate trypanosomatids towards their putative virulence.