Acidocalcisomes are dense, acidic organelles with a high concentration of phosphorus present as pyrophosphate and polyphosphate complexed with calcium and other cations. Acidocalcisomes have been linked to the contractile vacuole complex in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Dictyostelium discoideum, and Trypanosoma cruzi. A microtubule-and cyclic AMP-mediated fusion of acidocalcisomes to the contractile vacuole complex in T. cruzi results in translocation of aquaporin and the resulting water movement which, in addition to swelling of acidocalcisomes, is responsible for the volume reversal not accounted for by efflux of osmolytes. Polyphosphate hydrolysis occurs during hyposmotic stress, probably increasing the osmotic pressure of the contractile vacuole and facilitating water movement.
Index DescriptorsChlamydomonas reinhardtii; Dictyostelium discoideum; Trypanosoma cruzi; Kinetoplastida; acidocalcisomes; contractile vacuole
Need for osmoregulation in Trypanosoma cruziTrypanosoma cruzi has a complex life cycle involving several morphological and functionally different stages. As T. cruzi progresses through its life cycle, it encounters diverse environmental stressors to which it must successfully adapt. Of particular interest is the parasite's ability to cope with extreme fluctuations in osmolarity that occur within the gut of the vector (Kollien et al., 2001;Kollien and Schaub, 2002) and also as the parasite moves from the insect gut through the acidic phagolysosome to the cytosol of the host cell. The infective form of the parasite passes out of the vector in the highly concentrated excreta (600-700 mOsm) (Kollien et al., 2001) and rapidly encounters the interstitial fluid of the mammalian host with a much lower osmolarity (300 mOsm). Clearly the parasite must have mechanisms that allow it to adapt both to hyperosmotic and hyposmotic stresses. In this review we limit our discussion to the response of T. cruzi to hyposmotic stress. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
NIH Public Access
Adaptation to hyposmotic stress in vertebrate cellsPhysiological adaptations to hyposmotic stress have been studied extensively in a wide range of vertebrate cell types. Upon exposure to a reduction in external osmolarity, cells initially swell but soon regain nearly normal cell volume by a process that has been termed the Regulatory Volume Decrease (RVD; reviewed in (Lang et al., 1998a; Lang et al., 1998b), which is accomplished by the efflux of various inorganic ions (such as Na + and K + ) and organic osmolytes to the extracellular environment. Vertebrate cells maintain hig...