Transcriptional profile of the homologous recombination machinery and characterization of the EhRAD51 recombinase in response to DNA damage in Entamoeba histolytica

摘要

BackgroundIn eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, homologous recombination is an accurate mechanism to generate genetic diversity, and it is also used to repair DNA double strand-breaks. RAD52 epistasis group genes involved in recombinational DNA repair, including mre11, rad50, nsb1/xrs2, rad51, rad51c/rad57, rad51b/rad55, rad51d, xrcc2, xrcc3, rad52, rad54, rad54b/rdh54 and rad59 genes, have been studied in human and yeast cells. Notably, the RAD51 recombinase catalyses strand transfer between a broken DNA and its undamaged homologous strand, to allow damaged region repair. In protozoan parasites, homologous recombination generating antigenic variation and genomic rearrangements is responsible for virulence variation and drug resistance. However, in Entamoeba histolytica the protozoan parasite responsible for human amoebiasis, DNA repair and homologous recombination mechanisms are still unknown.