Cytoskeletal analysis of human pathogenic parasites

The aim of this work was to identify the complete cytoskeleton-associated proteome of the human pathogenic parasite Trichomonas vaginalis. The focus was on proteins with repetitive sequence architecture that are associated with filamentous structures and cannot be assigned to the actin or tubulin protein family based on their properties. Based on the findings of specialized cytoskeletal morphologies of various protists, such as Saccharomyces cerevisae, Tetrahymena thermophila and Giardia lamblia, the aim was to identify evidence for the presence of intermediate filament (IF) proteins in the protist kingdom and to discuss them in the context of metazoan organisms, especially since the presence of IF proteins outside the Metazoa was generally doubted by the IF protein research community until the beginning of this work.