New insights into the adaptation mechanisms of Leishmania parasites

Parasites of the genus Leishmania show important genomic instability, which these pathogens use to adapt to their environment. A study by Institut Pasteur researchers shows that Leishmania exploits non-coding RNAs to mitigate toxic effects of genome instability by post-transcriptional regulation and the establishment of specialized ribosomes.

Darwinian evolution plays a central yet poorly understood role in human disease. Iterations between genetic mutation and environmental selection drive cancer development, microbial infection and therapeutic failures. The molecular mechanisms that harness the deleterious effects of genome instability to generate beneficial phenotypes in pathogens are unknown. In a paper, published in PNAS, scientists from the Molecular Parasitology and Signaling Unit of the Institut Pasteur, with a participation of the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Hub, and their collaborators have demonstrated that the deleterious effects of genome instability in Leishmania parasites can be compensated by adaptive changes in RNA stability and modification.

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