Translation of open reading frame in kinetoplast DNA minicircles of clinical isolates of L. donovani

Abstract

Till today, it remains an enigma whether the open reading frames said to be transcribed in minicircle sequences are indeed translated into protein products or not. We establish a protein-coding gene in minicircle variable region of kinetoplast DNA from clinical isolates of Leishmania donovani. The protein was expressed as an N-tagged green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion protein in leishmanial expression system. Fluorescence microscopy of the transfectants carrying recombinant GFP construct showed the protein to be localized on the plasmalemma of the parasite. This shows that the minicircle transcript is indeed translated into a protein product in the parasite cell and further points toward probable biological function of minicircles in kinetoplastids.