Lea Drogalis Beckham

Citation: Drogalis Beckham L, Snyder A, Doublié S, Martorelli Di Genova B (2025) Translesion synthesis and microhomology-mediated end-joining repair in trypanosomatids. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 19(10): e0013626. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0013626 Editor: Abhay R. Satoskar, Ohio State University, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Published: October 31, 2025 Copyright: © 2025 Drogalis Beckham et al.

Abstract The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii relies on its host for essential metabolites, including purines, which it cannot synthesize de novo. This study investigates the roles of equilibrative nucleoside transporters (TgENTs), specifically TgAT1, TgENT1, and TgENT3, across different developmental stages of T. gondii. Utilizing protein-protein BLAST and position-specific iterated BLAST, we identified six genes in the T.

DNA polymerase θ (Pol θ) is the enzyme at the heart of theta-mediated end joining (TMEJ), a double-strand break repair pathway.1 The process of aligning microhomologies often results in unpaired 3′ ends that are trimmed by a nuclease before extension by Pol θ. In some polymerases, the same active site can be used to catalyze both polymerase activity and endonucleolytic cleavage.