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May 13-14, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry
9
th
World Congress on
Asian Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences | Volume 9
ISSN: 2249-622X
The pros and cons of being a parasite: Obligate parasites produce myriads of
protein isoforms from each gene
Sergey Melnikov
Yale University, USA
I
study the phenomenon of genome decay in obligate
intracellular parasites – organisms that exploit living
cells of other species as a nutrient-rich shelter in which to
grow, reproduce, and evade the host immune response. As
intracellularparasitesevolveunderconditionswithalleviated
natural selection, they suffer from irreversible accumulation
of deleterious mutations and progressive genome decay.
Through biochemistry, genetics, structural biology and
bioinformatics, I investigate how the genome decay affects
structure and activity of molecular machineries of a parasite
cell. Because the genome decay problem is universal, I move
back and forth between bacterial and eukaryotic pathogens
(Microsporidia, Wolbachia, Mycoplasma). These studies
are important because they are uncovering fundamental
principles and predictable routes of pathogen evolution
and because they may lead to new effective therapies to
eliminate diseases caused by intracellular parasites.
The talk will present my recent findings that the genome
decay in intracellular parasites eradicates one of the most
fundamental properties of a cell – its ability to accurately
translate the genetic code into correct protein sequences.
For instance, in Microsporidia – emerging pathogens of
animals, including humans, mosquitos and honey bees
– protein synthesis is accompanied with statistical errors
in protein sequence leading to expression of myriads of
protein isoforms from each gene. In my talk I will highlight
our current efforts to understand the impact of error-prone
protein synthesis on parasites’ fitness and parasite-host
interaction. Also, I will present our progress in using the
error-prone protein synthesis as a target to treat parasite
infections.
e
:
serguey.v.melnikov@gmail.comAsian J Biomed Pharmaceut Sci, Volume:9
DOI: 10.4066/2249-622X-C2-021
Notes: