Heterologous expression of a plant arginine decarboxylase gene in Trypanosoma cruzi.

Wild-type Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes lack arginine decarboxylase (ADC) enzymatic activity. However, the transformation of these parasites with a recombinant plasmid containing the oat ADC cDNA coding region gave rise to the transient heterologous expression of the enzyme, suggesting the absence of endogenous mechanisms that could inhibit the expression of a hypothetical own ADC gene or the assay used to measure its enzymatic activity. The foreign ADC enzyme expressed in the transgenic T.

Lack of arginine decarboxylase in Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes.

The presence of arginine decarboxylase (ADC) enzymatic activity in Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes is still a matter of controversy due to conflicting results published during the last few years. We have investigated whether arginine might indeed be a precursor of putrescine via agmatine in these parasites. We have shown that wild-type T.