Kinetoplast Minicircles Carrying Guide RNA Genes of Leishmania tarentolae (RESEARCH FACILITY OF NUCLEIC ACIDS)

Abstract

The nucleotide sequences of the minicircles from the kinetoplast DNA network of Leishmania tarentolae have been determined. Each minicircle encoded a single unique guide RNA (gRNA) gene located approximately 150 base pairs from the conserved region which contains the replication origins for both strands. Out of seven minicircle-encoded gRNA genes identified, three were involved in RNA editing of the blocks I, II and V of the mitochondrial unidentified reading frame 4 gene (MURF4), four in RNA editing of the blocks II, V, VII and VIII of ribosomal protein S12 gene. Sequence comparison of the surrounding of the genes showed some similarity in the 5' flanking region which may contain signal sequences for transcriptional initiation of gRNAs