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Iron and copper transporters in amphizoic amoebae "Naegleria fowleri" and "Acanthamoeba castellanii"
Grechnikova, Mariia ; Šuťák, Róbert (advisor) ; Lorenzo Morales, Jacob (referee) ; Maciver, Sutherland (referee)
Amphizoic amoebae Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba castellanii are distributed worldwide in diverse natural and anthropogenic environments. N. fowleri can infect healthy individuals, causing a rare but deadly brain disease called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis with a mortality rate of over 95%. Infection develops if amebae from contaminated water get into the nose. A. castellanii can infect the central nervous system of immunocompromised patients, causing granulomatous amoebic encephalitis with a survival rate of 2-3%, and the eyes of healthy people, leading to a severe sight-threatening infection called Acanthamoeba keratitis. N. fowleri and A. castellanii are aerobic organisms and require iron and copper cofactors. Both metals are crucial for almost all known organisms and toxic in excess, so the pathogens tightly control the homeostasis of iron and copper, which is critical for their virulence. However, the information about metal homeostasis in amphizoic amoeba is scarce. This work aimed to characterize some of the mechanisms employed by N. fowleri and A. castellanii for iron and copper acquisition and detoxification. Despite the similar morphology and lifestyle of studied amoebae, their mechanisms of iron homeostasis under iron-limiting conditions are entirely different. Both amoebae...
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