A Narf-like gene from Cryptosporidium parvum resembles homologues observed in aerobic protists and higher eukaryotes.

Here we report a Narf-like gene from the apicomplexan Cryptosporidium parvum (CpNARF). CpNARF is an intronless, single-copy gene of 1680 bp which encodes a putative protein of 560 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 63.1 kDa. This gene contains a single highly conserved N-terminal iron-sulfur cluster ([4Fe-4S]) binding site, as well as most of the H-cluster conserved residues. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis indicates that CpNARF is expressed by the intracellular stages of C. parvum. Although the function of this gene is as yet unknown, phylogenetic analyses suggest that CpNARF belongs to the group of NARF-like proteins from aerobic protists and higher eukaryotes, which are thought to have had an ancestor in common with [Fe]-hydrogenases.