Mathieu-Daudé Françoise auteur aut IRD Bosseno Marie-France auteur aut IRD Garzon Edwin auteur aut IRD Lelièvre J. auteur aut IRD Sereno Denis auteur aut IRD Ouaissi Ali auteur aut IRD Brenière Simone Frédérique auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access Trypanosoma cruzi is highly heterogeneous in terms of genetics and biological properties. To explore the diversity of T. cruzi, we focused our study on the T. cruzi Tc52 protein playing a critical immunosuppressive role during infection. Sequence variability and expression levels of this virulence factor were analysed in various strains. Among the 40 amino acid substitutions detected in the Tc52 coding sequences, three substitutions may have an impact on protein activity or function, as two are localized in sites involved in the glutathione binding and the third is present in the region bearing immunomodulatory function. This sequence variability was consistent with the genetic subdivisions of T. cruzi. Moreover, we observed that the level of Tc52 transcripts and proteins varied between the different strains, but we did not find a significant correlation between Tc52 expression and the phylogeny of the parasite. Thus, both diversity in the sequences and differences in the expression levels of Tc52 protein may be involved in the biological variability of T. cruzi, especially in virulence and immunosuppression properties of T. cruzi strains. specialized 052 101 5 1355-1363 2007 0932-0113 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010040757 10.1007/s00436-007-0651-3 0932-0113 [F B010040757] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010040757 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2007/10/010040757.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2007-11-06 2017-08-23 fdi:010040757 fre