, 2010). Experimental Autophagy inhibition details are included in the Supporting Information. Total RNA was obtained from different T. cruzi stages and CHO-K1 cells as a control using TriZOL® reagent (Invitrogen, Lithuania). The RNA preparations were treated with RNase-free DNase I (Fermentas,

Life Sciences) and checked following standard procedures (Sambrook & Russell, 2001). Each RNA extraction was carried out in triplicate. cDNAs of T. cruzi or CHO-K1 cells (used as a control) were synthesized through an RT reaction (Superscript III™, Invitrogen) using 5 μg of total RNA. Real-time PCR quantitative mRNA analyses were performed in a Mastercycler® ep realplex (Eppendorf, Germany) using the SYBRgreen fluorescence quantification system (Fermentas, Lithuania). The standard PCR conditions were: 95 °C (10 min), and then 40 cycles of 94 °C (1 min), 60 °C (1 min) and 72 °C (2 min), followed by the denaturation curve. The primer designs were based on nucleotide sequences of T. cruzi genes

coding for TcCOX10, TcCOX15 and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) (GenBank accession numbers for TcCOX10: XM_812192.1– Tc00.1047053509767.59, and XM_809695.1– Tc00.1047053509601.59; TcCOX15: XM_812635.1– Tc00.1047053511211.70, and GAPDH: AI007393). The sequences of the primers used are listed below. The primers designed for TcCOX10 are able to recognize both cds. The data were analyzed using realplex v1.5 software. The fold-change in the expression of the transcripts was obtained using the comparative method (ΔΔCt) (Bookout et al., 2006). The epimastigote stage was used

as the reference stage for both p38 MAP Kinase pathway genes. Primers for qRT-PCR: TcCOX10-forward 5′-AGATGAAGCGAACCTGTCGT-3′, TcCOX10-reverse 5′-AACCACAAGCTCCAAACCAC-3′ (product 89 bp); TcCOX15-forward 5′-ACCACCTTCTTGTGGTGGAG-3′, TcCOX15-reverse 5′-CAATCCCAAAATGGAAATGG-3′(product 113 bp) and GAPDH-forward 5′-GTGGCAGCACCGGTAACG-3′, GAPDH-reverse 5′-CAGGTCTTTCTTTTGCGAAT-3′(product 110 bp). The differences in the transcriptional level among the different stages were compared using Student’s t-test. For this purpose, the software graphpad prism version 5.00 for Windows (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA) was used. The significance level (P value) was determined with a confidence interval Metformin of 95% in a two-tail distribution. Detailed information is included in the Supporting Information. Trypanosoma cruzi is auxotrophic for heme, which is an indispensable cofactor for the biogenesis of cytochromes and other heme enzymes involved in crucial biological processes. The cytochrome c of T. cruzi, an important mitochondrial heme protein, shows different properties compared with cytochrome c from other organisms. In trypanosomatids, heme is attached via only one covalent bond and none of the known cytochrome c biogenesis proteins have been identified from their genomic sequences.