This award supports a one-year collaborative research project between Dr. Diana Beattie, Department of Biochemistry, West Virginia University, and Dr. Job Kiaira, Department of Biochemistry, University of Nairobi, in Kenya. The investigators will collaborate on research to clarify the mechanism by which mitochondrial biogenesis in the protozoan Trypanosoma brucei is regulated. The investigators will establish the time course of the appearance of different segments of the electron transfer chain during the differentiation from long, slender mammalian bloodstream forms into procyclic insect forms and examine the products of mitochondrial protein synthesis during differentiation. The proposed collaboration combines the expertise in mitochondrial biogenesis in the United States with the Kenyan expertise in the development of trypanosomes. T. brucei is the causative agent of trypanosomiasis in cattle. This study will contribute important new insights into the understanding of the electron transport chain and its regulation during differentiation.
