Entamoeba histolytica is responsible for amoebic colitis and liver abscess in humans. Entamoeba dispar is a closely related, morphologically indistinguishable nonpathogenic species. The hexokinase (ATP:D-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.1) isoenzyme patterns distinguish the pathogenic and nonpathogenic species. Both species possess two hexokinases with very similar molecular mass and different isoelectric points. In order to understand the role of the two different isoenzymes from E. histolytica, we purified the recombinant hexokinases HXK1 and HXK2 and examined substrate spectrum and kinetic properties. The two enzymes displayed similar temperature and pH optima, they were inhibited strongly by AMP and ADP, not by glucose 6-phosphate. Both enzymes phosphorylated glucose well and were unable to phosphorylate fructose or galactose. We also detected significant differences. HXK1 was more sensitive to inhibition by AMP and ADP. Mannose was phosphorylated well by HXK1, but at a much lower rate by HXK2. We attempted to expand the substrate spectrum of E. histolytica HXK1 by modifying its active site to become similar to the active site of the fructose phosphorylating yeast hexokinase PII. None of the nine mutants gained any fructokinase activity, but all of them retained at least some glucokinase and mannokinase activity. Mannokinase activity was decreased drastically by two single amino acid exchanges, both of which contributed significantly to this effect. The data indicate that a complex interaction of a number of amino acid residues is necessary for the ability to phosphorylate a given hexose.

The electrophoretic patterns of hexokinase and phosphoglucomutase have been widely used to distinguish Entamoeba histolytica from Entamoeba dispar isolates. Although E. histolytica and E. dispar, previously called pathogenic and nonpathogenic Entamoeba histolytica, differ clearly in sequences of many homologous genes, a conversion between the two has been reported by several laboratories, in each case showing the conversion of hexokinase (ATP, D-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.1) isoenzyme patterns. An apparent mobility shift of this enzyme may either be due to posttranslational modification or processing, or to the appearance of a new isoform encoded by a second gene. In this study we observed that the four observed bands in the isoenzyme patterns of pathogenic and nonpathogenic forms of Entamoeba were correlated with four different cDNAs, and that the four recombinant hexokinases produced in Escherichia coli comigrated with their natural counterparts. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments did not reveal hidden genes which might be responsible for conversion phenomena. These results strongly support the redefinition of pathogenic and nonpathogenic Entamoeba histolytica as two closely related species Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar.

Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar have only recently been defined as two separate species. E. histolytica, the pathogenic species, is the microorganism causing invasive intestinal amoebiasis and/or liver abscess, while the morphologically similar E. dispar is nonpathogenic and noninvasive. The gold standard for the distinction of the two species has been the isoenzyme electrophoresis of phosphoglucomutases (EC 5.4.2.2) and hexokinases (EC 2.7.1.1), but there had also been a controversy about the possibility of a conversion of isoenzyme patterns. In this study, we cloned the phosphoglucomutase (PGM) cDNAs from the pathogenic and the nonpathogenic species. The deduced amino acid sequences were only 2.4% different. The cDNAs were expressed in Escherichia coli under the control of a T7 RNA polymerase promoter. The recombinant polypeptides displayed strong phosphoglucomutase activity, each of the recombinant enzymes comigrated with its natural counterpart from E. histolytica and E. dispar in the starch gel electrophoresis. Our results give a biochemical interpretation of the PGM isoenzyme pattern and support the clear distinction between the two species.

In the human parasite Entamoeba histolytica, components of the cytoskeleton are involved in the pathogenicity by their contribution to immune evasion by antibody capping and shedding. In this study, we focus on profilin as a central regulatory component of the cytoskeleton. Profilin was isolated from trophozoites of the pathogenic E. histolytica strain SFL-3, and partial amino acid sequences were used to devise a probe for isolating a profilin cDNA. The deduced complete primary structure was divergent: plant profilins with amino acid sequence identities in the range 33-38% were more closely related than the mammalian profilins with sequence identities 21-28%. The cDNA was expressed as a nonfusion protein in Escherichia coli. Isoelectric focussing of the natural profilin isolated from E. histolytica showed two isoforms with different isoelectric points; the recombinant profilin migrated with the basic isoform. In a blot overlay experiment, purified 125I-labeled recombinant profilin bound not only to plant actin, but also to mammalian actin, demonstrating that cytoskeletal components from distantly related organisms with divergent primary structures can be compatible.

The zymodemes, electrophoretic patterns of hexokinase, phosphoglucomutase and glucose phosphate isomerase isoenzymes, have been widely used to determine the pathogenicity of Entamoeba histolytica isolates. Although pathogenic and nonpathogenic forms of E. histolytica differ clearly in sequences of many homologous genes, a conversion between pathogenic and nonpathogenic zymodemes has been reported by several laboratories. To approach the question what might be the basis for the observed conversion, we examined the molecular biology of the hexokinase (ATP:d-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.1) isoenzymes in pathogenic E. histolytica. We isolated two different cDNAs pHXK1 and pHXK2 coding for polypeptides with significant sequence similarity to hexokinases and deduced molecular masses of 49.8 kDa and 49.4 kDa. The two hexokinase sequences differed by 11% on the amino acid and by 8% on the nucleotide level. Expression of the cDNAs in Escherichia coli as nonfusion proteins gave two polypeptides with hexokinase activity. The recombinant Hxk1 and Hxk2 polypeptides comigrated with the more basic and more acidic isoforms of pathogenic amoebae in starch gel electrophoresis, as well as in low and high resolution isoelectric focussing gels. This identified the observed hexokinase isoenzymes of pathogenic E. histolytica as the products of two genes, hxk1 and hxk2.

The genome of the human intestinal parasite Entamoeba histolytica contains nearly 3000 introns and bioinformatic predictions indicate that major and minor spliceosomes occur in Entamoeba. However, except for the U2-, U4-, U5- and U6 snRNAs, no other splicing factor has been cloned and characterized. Here, we HA-tagged cloned the snRNP component U1A and assessed its expression and nuclear localization. Because the snRNP-free U1A form interacts with polyadenylate-binding protein, HA-U1A immunoprecipitates could identify early and late splicing complexes. Avoiding Entamoeba's endonucleases and ensuring the precipitation of RNA-binding proteins, parasite cultures were UV cross-linked prior to nuclear fraction immunoprecipitations with HA antibodies, and precipitates were subjected to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analyses. To discriminate their nuclear roles (chromatin-, co-transcriptional-, splicing-related), MS/MS analyses were carried out with proteins eluted with MS2–GST–sepharose from nuclear extracts of an MS2 aptamer-tagged Rabx13 intron amoeba transformant. Thus, we probed thirty-six Entamoeba proteins corresponding to 32 cognate splicing-specific factors, including 13 DExH/D helicases required for all stages of splicing, and 12 different splicing-related helicases were identified also. Furthermore 50 additional proteins, possibly involved in co-transcriptional processes were identified, revealing the complexity of co-transcriptional splicing in Entamoeba. Some of these later factors were not previously found in splicing complex analyses.Numerous facts about the splicing of the nearly 3000 introns of the Entamoeba genome have not been unraveled, particularly the splicing factors and their activities.Considering that many of such introns are located in metabolic genes, the knowledge of the splicing cues has the potential to be used to attack or control the parasite.We have found numerous new splicing-related factors which could have therapeutic benefit. We also detected all the DExH/A RNA helicases involved in splicing and splicing proofreading control. Still, Entamoeba is very inefficient in splicing fidelity, thus we may have found a possible model system to study these processes.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Proteomics, mass spectrometry and peptidomics, Cancun 2013. Guest Editors: César López-Camarillo, Victoria Pando-Robles and Bronwyn Jane Barkla.

To investigate the humoral immune response of patients with amoebic dysentry against Entamoeba histolytica, immunoglobulin G (IgG)-immunopositive cDNA clones from the pathogenic strain SFL-3 were examined. A large part of the IgG-positive cDNA clones obtained with one serum encoded highly conserved intracellular proteins. A clone was found that was homologous to translation elongation factor-2 (EF-2). Sequence analysis of the EF-2 cDNA showed 63.6% amino acid sequence identity with the human homologue. The deduced protein sequence has a length of 840 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 93.3 kD. The 3' and 5' untranslated regions of the mRNA are relatively short as shown for other genes of E. histolytica. A genomic clone was used to analyze the region upstream of the translation initiation codon. The codon distribution of EF-2 and other published E. histolytica sequences reflects the high A/T content. The codons for different amino acids are biased to a widely differing extent.

Entamoeba histolytica has an unusual nuclear structure characterized by a low degree of chromatin condensation and the absence of stainable metaphase chromosomes. Although nucleosome-like particles were observed, no information about histones was available so far. In this paper we describe a cDNA clone with significant homology to H3 histones that was isolated from a library of pathogenic E. histolytica.The complete cDNA encodes a 15-kDa polypeptide, which like the histone sequence from Volvox carteri is shorter by one residue than the human homologue. The amino acid sequence has only 69% identity with human H3.3 histone and 67% identity with the human H3.1 histone. This is the highest degree of sequence divergence observed for any eukaryote H3 histone sequence. Our results indicate that this divergence may contribute to the unusual chromatin structure of E. histolytica.

Several surface IgG antigens of E. histolytica have been characterized. We isolated two novel cDNAs by screening a library of pathogenic E. histolytica with rabbit antiserum against a membrane preparation of pathogenic amebas. cDNA K15 encodes a large protein > 220 kDa with sequence homology to myosins and K18 encodes a protein of around 40 kDa. Serum IgG from patients suffering from amebiasis binds to both antigens. Some IgE antibodies are able to recognize homologous proteins in all eukaryotes investigated. We demonstrate that IgE antibodies from pollen allergic patients bind to plant, human, as well as E. histolytica profilins.

In order to investigate the humoral immune response against Entamoeba histolytica a λ ZapII cDNA library was constructed from trophozoites of the pathogenic E. histolytica strain SFL-3. The library was screened with serum IgG from a patient with invasive amoebiasis. Forty-nine immunopositive λ clones were isolated and partial sequences from the inserts were obtained. By comparison of the sequences with the merged database MIPSX from the Martinsried Institute for Protein Sequences we were able to identify homologous proteins for 36 of the clones. Twenty-six of the clones encoded intracellular proteins, among these, the major part (16 clones) were highly homologous to the eukaryotic 70-kDa heat shock proteins (Hsps). The open reading frame of one complete clone encodes a protein of 656 amino acid residues of 71.5 kDa which has 69.8% sequence identity with the human Hsp70 protein. In a larger screening experiment only 3 out of 12 patients detected with their IgG the phage which expressed the 70-kDa heat shock protein(s).

E. histolytica has an unusual nuclear structure. Although nucleosome-like particles were observed, no information about histones was available so far. In this paper we describe a cDNA clone with significant homology to H3 histones that was isolated from a lambda Zap library of pathogenic E. histolytica. The complete cDNA encodes a 15 kDa polypeptide, which is shorter by one residue than the human homologue. The amino acid sequence has only 69% identity with human H3.3 histone. Our results indicate that this divergence may contribute to the unusual chromatin structure of E. histolytica.