Dataset Information

Putative cis-regulatory elements associated with heat shock genes activated during excystation of Cryptosporidium parvum.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cryptosporidiosis is a ubiquitous infectious disease, caused by the protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium hominis and C. parvum, leading to acute, persistent and chronic diarrhea worldwide. Although the complications of this disease can be serious, even fatal, in immunocompromised patients of any age, they have also been found to lead to long term effects, including growth inhibition and impaired cognitive development, in infected immunocompetent children. The Cryptosporidium life cycle alternates between a dormant stage, the oocyst, and a highly replicative phase that includes both asexual vegetative stages as well as sexual stages, implying fine genetic regulatory mechanisms. The parasite is extremely difficult to study because it cannot be cultured in vitro and animal models are equally challenging. The recent publication of the genome sequence of C. hominis and C. parvum has, however, significantly advanced our understanding of the biology and pathogenesis of this parasite.

Methodology/principal findings

Herein, our goal was to identify cis-regulatory elements associated with heat shock response in Cryptosporidium using a combination of in silico and real time RT-PCR strategies. Analysis with Gibbs-Sampling algorithms of upstream non-translated regions of twelve genes annotated as heat shock proteins in the Cryptosporidium genome identified a highly conserved over-represented sequence motif in eleven of them. RT-PCR analyses, described herein and also by others, show that these eleven genes bearing the putative element are induced concurrent with excystation of parasite oocysts via heat shock.

Conclusions/significance

Our analyses suggest that occurrences of a motif identified in the upstream regions of the Cryptosporidium heat shock genes represent parts of the transcriptional apparatus and function as stress response elements that activate expression of these genes during excystation, and possibly at other stages in the life cycle of the parasite. Since heat shock and excystation represent a critical step in the development of the infectious sporozoite form of Cryptosporidium, these results provide important insight into the pathogenicity of the parasite.

SUBMITTER: Cohn B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2832001 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Putative cis-regulatory elements associated with heat shock genes activated during excystation of Cryptosporidium parvum.

Cohn Benjamin B Manque Patricio P Lara Ana M AM Serrano Myrna M Sheth Nihar N Buck Gregory G

PloS one 20100304 3

<h4>Background</h4>Cryptosporidiosis is a ubiquitous infectious disease, caused by the protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium hominis and C. parvum, leading to acute, persistent and chronic diarrhea worldwide. Although the complications of this disease can be serious, even fatal, in immunocompromised patients of any age, they have also been found to lead to long term effects, including growth inhibition and impaired cognitive development, in infected immunocompetent children. The Cryptosporidium li ...[more]

PMID: 20209102

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Project description:BackgroundCryptosporidium parvum is a unicellular eukaryote in the phylum Apicomplexa. It is an obligate intracellular parasite that causes diarrhea and is a significant AIDS-related pathogen. Cryptosporidium parvum is not amenable to long-term laboratory cultivation or classical molecular genetic analysis. The parasite exhibits a complex life cycle, a broad host range, and fundamental mechanisms of gene regulation remain unknown. We have used data from the recently sequenced genome of this organism to uncover clues about gene regulation in C. parvum. We have applied two pattern finding algorithms MEME and AlignACE to identify conserved, over-represented motifs in the 5' upstream regions of genes in C. parvum. To support our findings, we have established comparative real-time -PCR expression profiles for the groups of genes examined computationally.ResultsWe find that groups of genes that share a function or belong to a common pathway share upstream motifs. Different motifs are conserved upstream of different groups of genes. Comparative real-time PCR studies show co-expression of genes within each group (in sub-sets) during the life cycle of the parasite, suggesting co-regulation of these genes may be driven by the use of conserved upstream motifs.ConclusionThis is one of the first attempts to characterize cis-regulatory elements in the absence of any previously characterized elements and with very limited expression data (seven genes only). Using de novo pattern finding algorithms, we have identified specific DNA motifs that are conserved upstream of genes belonging to the same metabolic pathway or gene family. We have demonstrated the co-expression of these genes (often in subsets) using comparative real-time-PCR experiments thus establishing evidence for these conserved motifs as putative cis-regulatory elements. Given the lack of prior information concerning expression patterns and organization of promoters in C. parvum we present one of the first investigations of gene regulation in this important human pathogen.

Project description:BackgroundThe eusocial Hymenoptera have radiated across a wide range of thermal environments, exposing them to significant physiological stressors. We reconstructed the evolutionary history of three families of Heat Shock Proteins (Hsp90, Hsp70, Hsp40), the primary molecular chaperones protecting against thermal damage, across 12 Hymenopteran species and four other insect orders. We also predicted and tested for thermal inducibility of eight Hsps from the presence of cis-regulatory heat shock elements (HSEs). We tested whether Hsp induction patterns in ants were associated with different thermal environments.ResultsWe found evidence for duplications, losses, and cis-regulatory changes in two of the three gene families. One member of the Hsp90 gene family, hsp83, duplicated basally in the Hymenoptera, with shifts in HSE motifs in the novel copy. Both copies were retained in bees, but ants retained only the novel HSE copy. For Hsp70, Hymenoptera lack the primary heat-inducible orthologue from Drosophila melanogaster and instead induce the cognate form, hsc70-4, which also underwent an early duplication. Episodic diversifying selection was detected along the branch predating the duplication of hsc70-4 and continued along one of the paralogue branches after duplication. Four out of eight Hsp genes were heat-inducible and matched the predictions based on presence of conserved HSEs. For the inducible homologues, the more thermally tolerant species, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, had greater Hsp basal expression and induction in response to heat stress than did the less thermally tolerant species, Aphaenogaster picea. Furthermore, there was no trade-off between basal expression and induction.ConclusionsOur results highlight the unique evolutionary history of Hsps in eusocial Hymenoptera, which has been shaped by gains, losses, and changes in cis-regulation. Ants, and most likely other Hymenoptera, utilize lineage-specific heat inducible Hsps, whose expression patterns are associated with adaptive variation in thermal tolerance between two ant species. Collectively, our analyses suggest that Hsp sequence and expression patterns may reflect the forces of selection acting on thermal tolerance in ants and other social Hymenoptera.

Project description:BackgroundThe male germ line in flowering plants is initiated within developing pollen grains via asymmetric division. The smaller cell then becomes totally encased within a much larger vegetative cell, forming a unique "cell within a cell structure". The generative cell subsequently divides to give rise to two non-motile diminutive sperm cells, which take part in double fertilization and lead to the seed set. Sperm cells are difficult to investigate because of their presence within the confines of the larger vegetative cell. However, recently developed techniques for the isolation of rice sperm cells and the fully annotated rice genome sequence have allowed for the characterization of the transcriptional repertoire of sperm cells. Microarray gene expression data has identified a subset of rice genes that show unique or highly preferential expression in sperm cells. This information has led to the identification of cis-regulatory elements (CREs), which are conserved in sperm-expressed genes and are putatively associated with the control of cell-specific expression.FindingsWe aimed to identify the CREs associated with rice sperm cell-specific gene expression data using in silico prediction tools. We analyzed 1-kb upstream regions of the top 40 sperm cell co-expressed genes for over-represented conserved and novel motifs. Analysis of upstream regions with the SIGNALSCAN program with the PLACE database, MEME and the Mclip tool helped to find combinatorial sets of known transcriptional factor-binding sites along with two novel motifs putatively associated with the co-expression of sperm cell-specific genes.ConclusionsOur data shows the occurrence of novel motifs, which are putative CREs and are likely targets of transcriptional factors regulating sperm cell gene expression. These motifs can be used to design the experimental verification of regulatory elements and the identification of transcriptional factors that regulate sperm cell-specific gene expression.

Dataset Information

Putative cis-regulatory elements associated with heat shock genes activated during excystation of Cryptosporidium parvum.

Background

Methodology/principal findings

Conclusions/significance

Publications

Putative cis-regulatory elements associated with heat shock genes activated during excystation of Cryptosporidium parvum.

Similar Datasets

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