About
Séminaire extraordinaire du Département des Parasites et Insectes Vecteurs
Professor Vyacheslav YURCHENKO
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Genetics; Lab Head Laboratory of Trypanosomatid Biology – Life Science Research Center University of Ostrava – Czech Republic
“Viral and bacterial endobionts of Trypanosomatidae: lessons from the “obscure” species”
jeudi 28 septembre 2023, 12h00
Salle Rétrovirus – RDC Bâtiment Lwoff
Contact : philippe.bastin@pasteur.fr
Abstract : Unicellular flagellates of the family Trypanosomatidae are obligatory parasites of invertebrates, vertebrates and plants. Dixenous species are etiological agents of a number of diseases in humans, domestic animals and plants. Their monoxenous relatives are restricted to insects.
Because of the high biological diversity, adaptability to dramatically different environmental conditions, and omnipresence, these protists have major impact on all biotic communities that still needs to be fully elucidated. In addition, as these organisms represent a highly divergent evolutionary lineage, they are strikingly different from the common ‘model system’ eukaryotes, such as some mammals, plants or fungi. In my talk, I will focus on viral and bacterial endobionts of trypanosomatids and present several research projects about these relationships.
1) A neo-functionalized homolog of host transmembrane protein controls localization of bacterial endosymbionts in the trypanosomatid Novymonas esmeraldas.
2) Diversity of RNA viruses in the cosmopolitan monoxenous trypanosomatid Leptomonas pyrrhocoris.
3) How dsRNA viruses adapt to the non-standard genetic code of Blastocrithidia spp.?