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Functional characterization of rhoptry kinome in the virulent toxoplasma gondii RH strain

Wang, Jin-Lei; Li, Ting-Ting; Elsheikha, Hany M.; Chen, Kai; Zhu, Wei-Ning; Yue, Dong-Mei; Zhu, Xing-Quan; Huang, Si-Yang

Authors

Jin-Lei Wang

Ting-Ting Li

Kai Chen

Wei-Ning Zhu

Dong-Mei Yue

Xing-Quan Zhu

Si-Yang Huang



Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular apicomplexan protozoan which can infect any warm-blooded animal and causes severe diseases in immunocompromised individuals or infants infected in utero. The survival and success of this parasite require that it colonizes the host cell, avoids host immune defenses, replicates within an appropriate niche, and exits the infected host cell to spread to neighboring non-infected cells. All of these processes depend on the parasite ability to synthesis and export secreted proteins. Amongst the secreted proteins, rhoptry organelle proteins (ROPs) are essential for the parasite invasion and host cell manipulation. Even though the functions of most ROPs have been elucidated in the less virulent T. gondii (type II), the roles of ROPs in the highly virulent type I strain remain largely un-characterized. Herein, we investigated the contributions of 15 ROPs (ROP10, ROP11, ROP15, ROP20, ROP23, ROP31, ROP32, ROP33, ROP34, ROP35, ROP36, ROP40, ROP41, ROP46, and ROP47) to the infectivity of the high virulent type I T. gondii (RH strain). Using CRISPR-Cas9, these 15 ROPs genes were successfully disrupted and the effects of gene knockout on the parasite’s ability to infect cells in vitro and BALB/c mice in vivo were investigated. These results showed that deletions of these ROPs did not interfere with the parasite ability to grow in cultured human foreskin fibroblast cells and did not significantly alter parasite pathogenicity for BALB/c mice. Although these ROPs did not seem to be essential for the acute infectious stage of type I T. gondii in the mouse model, they might have different functions in other intermediate hosts or play different roles in other life cycle forms of this parasite due to the different expression patterns; this warrants further investigations.

Citation

Wang, J., Li, T., Elsheikha, H. M., Chen, K., Zhu, W., Yue, D., …Huang, S. (in press). Functional characterization of rhoptry kinome in the virulent toxoplasma gondii RH strain. Frontiers in Microbiology, 8, Article 84. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00084

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 12, 2017
Online Publication Date Jan 24, 2017
Deposit Date Feb 6, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Frontiers in Microbiology
Electronic ISSN 1664-302X
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 8
Article Number 84
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00084
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/839276
Publisher URL http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00084/full

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