The role of genomic location and flanking 3′UTR in the generation of functional levels of variant surface glycoprotein in Trypanosoma brucei

What is it about?

Trypanosoma brucei expresses extremely abundant Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) (~10% total). We investigated this high VSG expression, and identified conserved 3’UTR sequences essential for mRNA stability. Functional VSG levels were only produced from a Pol I-transcribed VSG expression site, while expression from the Pol I-transcribed rDNA was variable and did not functionally complement. This highlights the essentiality of both VSG genomic location and conserved 3’UTR sequences for viability of bloodstream form T. brucei.

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