Mediante el uso de homopolímeros sintéticos e inhibidores específicos se ha demostrado la presencia de una actividad RT-like en Trypanosoma cruzi, parásito responsable de la enfermedad de Chagas. Además se ha mostrado que éste parásito presenta en su genoma un elemento móvil del tipo no-LTR, denominado L1Tc. La proteína recombinante obtenida a partir del ORF2 del referido elemento muestra actividad transcriptasa inversa. Esta actividad enzimática codificada por el elemento L1Tc, unida al hecho de que L1Tc fuese aislado a partir de un mensajero, evidencia que el mismo es funcional como elemento móvil por retrotransposición.

Palabras clave:Trypanosoma cruzi. Polimerasa ARN-dependiente. Homopolímeros ARN. Inhibidores RT.

By using synthetic homopolymers and specific inhibitors the presence of a RT-like activity was revealed to be present in Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite responsible for the Chagas' disease. We show, moreover, that this parasite has in its genome a non-LTR type mobile element, denominated L1Tc, and that the recombinant protein obtained from translation of the ORF2 of this element exhibits retretranscriptase activity. The presence of a RT-like activity in the nuclear fraction of the parasite, the fact that the L1Tc element was isolated as a cDNA and that the ORF2 derived protein has RT-like activity strongly suggest that L1Tc may well be responsible for the detected nuclear RT-like activity and that it functions as an active mobile element for retrotransposition.

Key words:Trypanosoma cruzi. RNA-dependent polymerase. RNA homopolymers. RT-like inhibitors.