Journal
PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES
Volume 9, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003476
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Funding
- Government of Canada - PDRF/DFAIT
- Universite Laval
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq)
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais - FAPEMIG - Brazil
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) [13233]
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Background Antimony resistance complicates the treatment of infections caused by the parasite Leishmania. Methodology/Principal Findings Using next generation sequencing, we sequenced the genome of four independent Leishmania guyanensis antimony-resistant (SbR) mutants and found different chromosomal alterations including aneuploidy, intrachromosomal gene amplification and gene deletion. A segment covering 30 genes on chromosome 19 was amplified intrachromosomally in three of the four mutants. The gene coding for the multidrug resistance associated protein A involved in antimony resistance was also amplified in the four mutants, most likely through chromosomal translocation. All mutants also displayed a reduced accumulation of antimony mainly due to genomic alterations at the level of the subtelomeric region of chromosome 31 harboring the gene coding for the aquaglyceroporin 1 (LgAQP1). Resistance involved the loss of LgAQP1 through subtelomeric deletions in three mutants. Interestingly, the fourth mutant harbored a single G133D point mutation in LgAQP1 whose role in resistance was functionality confirmed through drug sensitivity and antimony accumulation assays. In contrast to the Leishmania subspecies that resort to extrachromosomal amplification, the Viannia strains studied here used intrachromosomal amplification and locus deletion. Conclusions/Significance This is the first report of a naturally occurred point mutation in AQP1 in antimony resistant parasites.
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