GOLGI APPARATUS IN PARASITIC PROTISTS (REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE)
Yu. Ya. Sokolova, E. S. Snigirevskaya, Ya. Yu. Komissarchik
Institute of Cytology RAS, St. Petersburg;
e-mail: yykomis@mail.cytspb.rssi.ru
This review summarizes modern data on Golgi apparatus of parasitic protists and demonstrates how the parasitic
lifestyle determines functional and structural peculiarities of secretory systems in unrelated groups of
unicellular parasites, in comparison to ones of "model systems", mammalian and yeast cells. The review covers the
most well-studied protists, predominantly of high medical importance, belonging to following taxons: Parabasalia
(Trichomonas), Diplomonada (Giardia), Entamoebidae (Entamoeba), parasitic Alveolata of the
phyllum Apicomplexa (Toxoplasma and Plasmodium), and Kinetoplastida (Trypanosoma and
Leishmania). Numerous recent publications demonstrated that studies on intracellular traffic in the mentioned
above parasites essentially advanced our knowledge of Golgi function, traditionally based on research of cultured
mammalian and yeast cells. Morphology of Golgi organelle in eukaryotes from various taxonomic groups has been
compared. Within three of total six the highest taxons of Eukatyota (Adi et al., 2005) there exist at minimum eight
groups represented by species lacking Golgi dictiosomes. However, biochemical and (or) molecular (genomic) evidences
indicate that the organelle with functions of Golgi was present in every studied so far lineage of eukaryotes. Loss
of Golgi organelle is a secondary event, which has been proven by identification of Golgi genes in the genomes of
Golgi-lacking lineages. This loss might have occurred independently several times in the course of evolution.
Neither the number of stacks, nor the size of the organelle correlates with intensity of secretion, or the position
of the species on the evolutionary tree (in terms of presumably early/lately diverged lineages).
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