Profilins, Formins and Katanins as Flagellar Proteins of Leishmania spp.: a Genome-based, Multi-step Bioinformatics-driven Description

Flagellum plays a key role in Leishmania motility and sensory reception, and it is essential for parasite migration, invasion and persistence on host tissues. In search for genomic and/or proteomic evidences of flagellar genes/proteins in Leishmania spp., we have used available databases and computational biology tools to predict and distinguish putative flagellar proteins that are either actin-, tubulin-, axoneme-or microtubule-related sequences and, also, probable virulence factors. Here we present results of sequence and structural analyses of profilins, formins and katanins as possible flagellar proteins of Leishmania spp., whose sequences were in silico selected for predicting viable roles on flagellum assembly, disassembly and dynamics in terms of intraflagellar mechanisms. Taken together, our results provide the first integrated bioinformatics analyses of Leishmania profilin, katanin and formin genes and their gene products to contribute to a more detailed annotation of these important actin-related proteins not yet properly characterized in flagellate trypanosomatids or in their flagellar activities towards virulence.