Sphingolipids (SLs) play critical roles in eukaryotic cells in the formation of lipid rafts, membrane trafficking, and signal transduction. Here we created a SL null mutant in the protozoan parasite Leishmania major through targeted deletion of the key de novo biosynthetic enzyme serine palmitoyltransferase subunit 2 (SPT2). Although SLs are typically essential, spt2− Leishmania were viable, yet were completely deficient in de novo sphingolipid synthesis, and lacked inositol phosphorylceramides and other SLs. Remark ably, spt2− parasites maintained ‘lipid rafts’ as defined by Triton X‐100 detergent resistant membrane formation. Upon entry to stationary phase spt2− failed to differentiate to infective metacyclic parasites and died instead. Death occurred not by apoptosis or changes in metacyclic gene expression, but from catastrophic problems leading to accumulation of small vesicles characteristic of the multivesicular body/multivesicular tubule network. Stage specificity may reflect changes in membrane structure as well as elevated demands in vesicular trafficking required for parasite remodeling during differentiation. We suggest that SL‐deficient Leishmania provide a useful biological setting for tests of essential SL enzymes in other organisms where SL perturbation is lethal.

No abstract

Galactofuranose (Gal f ) is a novel sugar absent in mammals but present in a variety of pathogenic microbes, often within glycoconjugates that play critical roles in cell surface formation and the infectious cycle. In prokaryotes, Gal f is synthesized as the nucleotide sugar UDP-Gal f by UDP-galactopyranose mutase (UGM) (gene GLF). Here we used a combinatorial bioinformatics screen to identify a family of candidate eukaryotic GLFs that had previously escaped detection. GLFs from three pathogens, two protozoa (Leishmania major and Trypanosoma cruzi) and one fungus (Cryptococcus neoformans), had UGM activity when expressed in Escherichia coli and assayed in vivo and/or in vitro. Eukaryotic GLFs are closely related to each other but distantly related to prokaryotic GLFs, showing limited conservation of core residues around the substrate-binding site and flavin adenine dinucleotide binding domain. Several eukaryotes not previously investigated for Gal f synthesis also showed strong GLF homologs with conservation of key residues. These included other fungi, the alga Chlamydomonas and the algal phleovirus Feldmannia irregularis, parasitic nematodes (Brugia, Onchocerca, and Strongyloides) and Caenorhabditis elegans, and the urochordates Halocynthia and Cionia. The C. elegans open reading frame was shown to encode UGM activity. The GLF phylogenetic distribution suggests that Gal f synthesis may occur more broadly in eukaryotes than previously supposed. Overall, GLF/Gal f synthesis in eukaryotes appears to occur with a disjunct distribution and often in pathogenic species, similar to what is seen in prokaryotes. Thus, UGM inhibition may provide an attractive drug target in those eukaryotes where Gal f plays critical roles in cellular viability and virulence.

Polyamines are essential metabolites in eukaryotes participating in a variety of proliferative processes, and in trypanosomatid protozoa play an additional role in the synthesis of the critical thiol trypanothione. Whereas the polyamine biosynthesis arising from L-ornithine has been well studied in protozoa, the metabolic origin(s) of L-ornithine have received less attention. Arginase (EC 3.5.3.1) catalyzes the enzymatic hydrolysis of L-arginine to L-ornithine and urea, and we tested the role of arginase in polyamine synthesis by the generation of an arg− knockout in Leishmania major by double targeted gene replacement. This mutant lacked arginase activity and required the nutritional provision of polyamines or L-ornithine for growth. A complemented line (arg−/+ARG) expressing arginase from a multicopy expression vector showed 30-fold elevation of arginase activity, similar polyamine and ornithine levels as the wild-type, and resistance to the inhibitors α-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) and Nω-hydroxy-L-arginine (NOHA). This established that arginase is the major route of polyamine synthesis in promastigotes cultured in vitro. The arg− parasites retained the ability to differentiate normally to the infective metacyclic stage, and were able to induce progressive disease following inoculation into susceptible BALB/c mice, albeit less efficiently than WT parasites. These data suggest that the infective amastigote form of Leishmania, which normally resides within an acidified parasitophorous vacuole, can survive in vivo through salvage of host polyamines and/or other molecules, aided by the tendency of acidic compartments to concentrate basic metabolites. This may thus contribute to the relative resistance of Leishmania to ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) inhibitors. The availability of infective, viable, arginase-deficient parasites should prove useful in dissecting the role of L-arginine metabolism in both pro- and anti-parasitic responses involving host nitric oxide synthase, which requires L-arginine to generate NO.

Surface phosophoglycans such as lipophosphoglycan (LPG) or proteophosphoglycan (PPG) and glycosylinositol phospholipids (GIPLs) modulate essential interactions between Leishmania and mammalian macrophages. Phosphoglycan synthesis depends on the Golgi GDP-mannose transporter encoded by LPG2. LPG2-null (lpg2 − ) L. major cannot establish macrophage infections or induce acute pathology, whereas lpg2 − L. mexicana retain virulence. lpg2 − L. donovani has been reported to survive poorly in cultured macrophages but in vivo survival has not been explored. Herein we discovered that, similar to lpg2 − L. major, lpg2 − L. donovani promastigotes exhibited diminished virulence in mice, but persisted at consistently low levels. lpg2 − L. donovani promastigotes could not establish infections macrophages and could not transiently inhibit phagolysosomal fusion. Furthermore, lpg2 − promastigotes of L. major, L. donovani and L. mexicana were highly susceptible to complement mediated lysis. We conclude that phosphoglycan assembly and expression mediated by L. donovani LPG2 are important for promastigote and amastigote virulence, unlike L. mexicana but similar to L. major.