MOLECULAR-CLONING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A LEISHMANIA-DONOVANI ALPHA-TUBULIN GENE

We have isolated a cDNA for an alpha-tubulin mRNA from L. donovani pro mastigotes and determined its complete nucleotide sequence. Both nucle otide and deduced amino acid sequence analysis of this cDNA showed sig nificant similarity with a previously reported, partial sequence of an L. enriettii alpha-tubulin and the complete sequence of human alpha-t ubulin. Further, the in vitro translated L. donovani alpha-tubulin gen e product was specifically immunoprecipitated with a monoclonal antibo dy against human alpha-tubulin. Northern blot analysis revealed that t here was little change in the expression of the L. donovani alpha-tubu lin RNA during parasite differentiation from promastigote to the in vi tro grown ''amastigote'' form. Southern blot analysis revealed a simpl e genomic organization for the L. donovani alpha-tubulin gene with mor e than one copy of the alpha-tubulin gene in the parasite genome. To o ur knowledge, this is the first complete sequence of an alpha-tubulin for Leishmania to be reported in the literature.