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Programmed cell death in Giardia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2012

SUSMITA BAGCHI ,
ABRAHAM E. ONIKU ,
KATE TOPPING ,
ZAHRA N. MAMHOUD  and
TIMOTHY A. PAGET
SUSMITA BAGCHI
Affiliation:
Davis Hall, Lehman College, CUNY, 250, Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY10468, USA
ABRAHAM E. ONIKU
Affiliation:
Medway School of Pharmacy, Central Ave, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB, UK
KATE TOPPING
Affiliation:
University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull, E. Yorkshire HU6 7RX, UK
ZAHRA N. MAMHOUD
Affiliation:
Davis Hall, Lehman College, CUNY, 250, Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY10468, USA Wolfson Laboratories, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantocks Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
TIMOTHY A. PAGET*
Affiliation:
Davis Hall, Lehman College, CUNY, 250, Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY10468, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Room 301, Davis Hall, Lehman College, CUNY, 250, Bedford Park Blvd, Bronx, NY 10468, USA. Tel.: 001 718 960 8743. Fax: 001 718 960 8750. E-mail: timothy.paget@lehman.cuny.edu
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Summary

Programmed cell death (PCD) has been observed in many unicellular eukaryotes; however, in very few cases have the pathways been described. Recently the early divergent amitochondrial eukaryote Giardia has been included in this group. In this paper we investigate the processes of PCD in Giardia. We performed a bioinformatics survey of Giardia genomes to identify genes associated with PCD alongside traditional methods for studying apoptosis and autophagy. Analysis of Giardia genomes failed to highlight any genes involved in apoptotic-like PCD; however, we were able to induce apoptotic-like morphological changes in response to oxidative stress (H2O2) and drugs (metronidazole). In addition we did not detect caspase activity in induced cells. Interestingly, we did observe changes resembling autophagy when cells were starved (staining with MDC) and genome analysis revealed some key genes associated with autophagy such as TOR, ATG1 and ATG 16. In organisms such as Trichomonas vaginalis, Entamoeba histolytica and Blastocystis similar observations have been made but no genes have been identified. We propose that Giardia possess a pathway of autophagy and a form of apoptosis very different from the classical known mechanism; this may represent an early form of programmed cell death.

Keywords

Giardiacell deathapoptosisautophagyevolution
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 139 , Issue 7 , June 2012 , pp. 894 - 903
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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