Light chain 2 is a Tctex-type related axonemal dynein light chain that regulates directional ciliary motility in Trypanosoma brucei
Authors: Godar Subash , Oristian James , Hinsch Valerie , Wentworth Katherine , Lopez Ethan , Amlashi Parastoo , Enverso Gerald , Markley Samantha , Alper Joshua 
Published: October 2021

Flagellar motility is essential for the cell morphology, viability, and virulence of pathogenic kinetoplastids, including trypanosomes. Trypanosoma brucei flagella exhibit a bending wave that propagates from the flagellum’s tip to its base, rather than base-to-tip as in other eukaryotes. Thousands of dynein motor proteins coordinate their activity to drive ciliary bending wave propagation. Dynein- associated light and intermediate chains regulate the biophysical mechanisms of axonemal dynein. Tctex- type outer arm dynein light chain 2 (LC2) regulates flagellar bending wave propagation direction, amplitude, and frequency in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. However, the role of Tctex-type light chains in regulating T. brucei motility is unknown. Here, we used a combination of bioinformatics, in-situ molecular tagging, and immunofluorescence microscopy to identify a Tctex-type light chain in the procyclic form of T. brucei (TbLC2). We knocked down TbLC2 expression using RNAi, rescued the knockdown with eGFP- tagged TbLC2, and quantified TbLC2’s effects on trypanosome cell biology and biophysics. We found that TbLC2 knockdown resulted in kinetoplast mislocalization and the formation of multiple cell clusters in cell culture. We also found that TbLC2 knockdown reduced the directional persistence of trypanosome cell swimming, induced an asymmetric ciliary bending waveform, modulated the bias between the base-to- tip and tip-to-base beating modes, and increased the beating frequency. Together, our findings are consistent with a model of TbLC2 as a down-regulator of axonemal dynein activity that stabilizes the forward tip-to-base beating ciliary waveform characteristic of trypanosome cells. Our work sheds light on axonemal dynein regulation mechanisms that contribute to pathogenic kinetoplastids’ unique tip-to-base ciliary beating nature and how those mechanisms underlie dynein-driven ciliary motility more generally.

Author Summary

Kinetoplastea is a class of ciliated protists that include parasitic trypanosomes, which cause severe disease in people and livestock in tropical regions across the globe. All trypanosomes, including Trypanosoma brucei, require a cilium to provide propulsive force for directional swimming motility, host immune evasion, and various aspects of their cell cycle. Thus, a functional cilium is essential for the virulence of the parasite.

Trypanosome cilia exhibit a unique tip-to-base beating mechanism, different from the base-to-tip beating of most other eukaryotic cilia. Multiple ciliary proteins are involved in the complex biophysical and biochemical mechanisms that underly the trypanosome ciliary beating. These include dynein motor proteins that power the beat, dynein-related light chains that regulate the beat, and many other proteins in the nexin-dynein regulatory complex, in the radial spokes, and associated with the central pair of microtubules, for example.

Here, we identify a Tctex-type dynein light chain in T. brucei that we named TbLC2 because it has sequence homology, structural similarity, and ciliary localization like LC2 homologs in other organisms. We demonstrate that TbLC2 has critical dynein regulatory functions, with implications on the unique aspects of trypanosome ciliary beating and cellular swimming motility. Our study represents an additional step toward understanding the functions of the trypanosome ciliary proteome, which could provide novel therapeutic targets against the unique aspects of trypanosome ciliary motility.