Trypanosoma brucei RRP44 is involved in an early stage of large ribosomal subunit RNA maturation.

Ribosomal RNA precursors undergo a series of structural and chemical modifications to generate matured RNA molecules that will comprise ribosomes. This maturation process involves a large set of accessory proteins as well as ribonucleases, responsible for removal of the external and internal transcribed spacers from the pre-rRNA. Early-diverging eukaryotes belonging to the Kinetoplastida class display several unique characteristics, in particular in terms of RNA synthesis and maturation.

Assessing the partners of the RBP9-mRNP complex in Trypanosoma cruzi using shotgun proteomics and RNA-seq.

Gene expression regulation in trypanosomes differs from other eukaryotes due to absence of transcriptional regulation for most of their genes. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) associate with mRNAs and other regulatory proteins to form ribonucleoprotein complexes (mRNPs), which play a major role in post-transcriptional regulation. Here, we show that RBP9 is a cytoplasmic RBP in Trypanosoma cruzi with one RNA-recognition motif (RRM).