Mitochondrial biogenesis and function in trypanosomes

Trypanosomatids are unicellular parasites that are as devastating in their consequences on health and economy as they are captivating as subjects of biological study. We study the mitochondrial biology of these parasites - the mitochondrion is a cell organelle that is often described as the ’power plant’ of eukaryotic cells but we now know that these organelles provide the cell with much more than energy. The trypanosome mitochondrion hosts two particularly bizarre phenomena: a structure called kinetoplast, which is the most complex mitochondrial DNA known in nature, and a process called RNA editing. We know from past research that maintaining the kinetoplast and expressing its genes via RNA editing is critical for parasite survival. If we interfere with one of these processes, the parasite dies. So a main goal of our research is to understand exactly how the cell makes and duplicates its kinetoplast, how it expresses the kinetoplast’s genes to make proteins, and what these proteins actually do. To achieve this we use the latest and most powerful methods in molecular and cellular biology, and we can offer a variety of different projects, depending on a student’s particular interests.

http://schnauferlab.bio.ed.ac.uk