• Title of article

    The Kinetoplast of Trypanosomatids: From Early Studies of Electron Microscopy to Recent Advances in Atomic Force Microscopy

  • Author/Authors

    Souza, Wanderley de InstitutoNacionaldeCiênciaeTecnologiadeBiologiaEstruturaleBioimagemandCentroNacionaldeBiologiaEstruturaleBioimagem(CENABIO) - UniversidadeFederaldoRiodeJaneiro - RiodeJaneiro - RJ, Brazil , Cavalcanti, Danielle Pereira InstitutoNacionaldeCiênciaeTecnologiadeBiologiaEstruturaleBioimagemandCentroNacionaldeBiologiaEstruturaleBioimagem(CENABIO) - UniversidadeFederaldoRiodeJaneiro - RiodeJaneiro - RJ, Brazil

  • Pages
    11
  • From page
    1
  • To page
    11
  • Abstract
    ThekinetoplastisaspecializedregionofthemitochondriaoftrypanosomatidsthatharborsthemostcomplexandunusualmitochondrialDNAfoundinnature.KinetoplastDNA(kDNA)iscomposedofthousandsofcircularmoleculestopologicallyinterlockedtoformasinglenetwork.TwotypesofDNAcirclesarepresentinthekinetoplast:minicircles(0.5–10kb)andmaxicircles(20–40kb).KnowledgeofkinetoplastarchitectureiscrucialtounderstandingthereplicationandsegregationofkDNAcirclesbecausethemoleculesinvolvedintheseprocessesarepreciselypositionedinfunctionaldomainsthroughoutthekinetoplast.Thefinestructureofthekinetoplastwasrevealedinearlyelectronmicroscopy(EM)studies.However,anunderstandingofthetopologicalorganizationofkDNAwasonlydemonstratedafterthedevelopmentofprotocolstoseparatekDNAfromnuclearDNA,followedbyEMobservations.Electronmicroscopyanalysisofthinsectionsoftrypanosomatids,spreadingofisolatedkDNAnetworksontoEMgrids,deep-etchingstudies,andcytochemicalandimmunocytochemicalapproachesareexamplesoftechniquesthatwereusefulforelucidatingthestructureandreplicationofthekinetoplast.Recently,atomicforcemicroscopyhasjoinedthissetoftechniquesandimprovedourknowledgeaboutthekDNAnetworkandrevealednewdetailsaboutkDNAtopologyintrypanosomatids.
  • Keywords
    Kinetoplast , Trypanosomatids , Early Studies , Electron Microscopy , Recent Advances , Atomic Force Microscopy , DNA (kDNA)
  • Journal title
    Scanning
  • Serial Year
    2018
  • Full Text URL
    downloads.hindawi.com/journals/scanning/2018/9603051.pdf
  • Record number

    2613615

    • Link To Document
    https://search.isc.ac/dl/search/defaultta.aspx?DTC=10&DC=2613615