Post-transcriptional regulation can harness genome instability and provide phenotypic robustness during fitness gain in the human parasite Leishmania donovani
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Leishmania donovani
PROVIDER: GSE165615 | GEO | 2022/02/22
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:Leishmania survival inside insect and mammalian hosts depends on the parasite’s capacity to develop into promastigote and amastigote stages, respectively. Promastigotes can be maintained in vitro in culture medium mimicking the insect milieu in which the parasites are surviving, differentiating and proliferating. We previously showed that the maintenance of the parasites in this in vitro environment lead to a progressive loss of infectivity together with genomic changes, notably chromosome amplifications. In contrast to classical eukaryotes Leishmania do not regulate expression of protein coding genes by transcriptional control, thus ruling out regulated gene expression changes in adaptation. In the absence of classical transcriptional regulation, Leishmania has evolved and emphasized other forms of control that are relevant for evolutionary adaptation, notably regulation of RNA abundance by gene dosage variation. In order to identify the biological signals that correlate with the observed fitness trade off we observed during L. donovani culture adaptation we combined DNAseq and RNAseq with label-free quantitative proteomics. Promastigotes freshly derived from splenic amastigotes purified from the spleen of infected hamsters were maintained in culture for 2 (EP) and 20 (LP) passages. Total protein extracts from four EP and four LP promastigotes were prepared for label free MS analysis.
2022-03-03 | PXD020236 | Pride
Project description:Post-transcriptional regulation can harness genome instability and provide phenotypic robustness during fitness gain in the human parasite Leishmania donovani
| PRJNA695220 | ENA
Project description:Transmission of Trypanosoma brucei by tsetse flies involves the deposition of the infective quiescent metacyclic stage into the mammalian skin at the site of the fly’s bite. In the skin, the metacyclic parasites reactivate and differentiate into proliferative trypanosomes before colonizing the host's blood and tissues. We have generated an advanced human skin equivalent and used tsetse flies to naturally infect the artificial skin with trypanosomes. We have detailed the chronological order of the parasites' development in the skin and found a rapid activation and differentiation of the tsetse-transmitted cell cycle‑arrested metacyclic trypanosomes to proliferative parasites. Single-parasite transcriptomics documented the biological events during differentiation and host invasion at five different time points. After the establishment of a proliferative trypanosome population in the skin, the parasites entered a reversible quiescence program characterized by slow replication and a strongly reduced metabolism. We termed these quiescent trypanosomes skin tissue forms (STF), which may play an important role in maintaining the trypanosome infection in aparasitemic, asymptomatic individuals.
2021-05-30 | GSE174198 | GEO
Project description:A growing body of evidence in mammalian cells indicates that secreted vesicles can be used to mediate intercellular communication processes by transferring various bioactive molecules, including mRNAs and microRNAs. Based on these findings, we decided to analyze whether T. cruzi-derived extracellular vesicles contain RNA molecules and performed a deep sequencing and genome-wide analysis of a size-fractioned cDNA library (16M-bM-^@M-^S40 nt) from extracellular vesicles secreted by noninfective epimastigote and infective metacyclic trypomastigote forms. Our data show that the small RNAs contained in these extracellular vesicles originate from multiple sources, including tRNAs. In addition, our results reveal that the variety and expression of small RNAs are different between parasite stages, suggesting diverse functions. Taken together, these observations call attention to the potential regulatory functions that these RNAs might play once transferred between parasites and/or to mammalian host cells. Small RNAs profiles (16-40 nt) of epimastigote-derived extracellular vesicles, metacyclic trypomastigote-derived extracellular vesicles and metacyclic trypomastigote parental cells.
2014-07-15 | E-GEOD-54111 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Drug resistance is a major public health challenge in Leishmaniasis chemotherapy, particularly in the case of emerging Leishmania/HIV-1 co-infections. Recently, we have delineated the mechanism of cell death induced by the HIV-1 protease inhibitor, Nelfinavir, in the Leishmania parasite. In order to investigate the underlying molecular mechanism involved in Nelfinavir resistance, in vitro Nelfinavir resistant amastigotes were developed by direct drug pressure in culture. RNA expression profiling analyses of closely related Leishmania species were used as a screening tool to compare Nelfinavir-resistant and -sensitive parasites in order to identify candidate genes involved in drug resistance, and several genes were found to be differentially expressed. Comparative gene hybridization (CGH) analyses of Nelfinavir-resistant and -sensitive Leishmania using whole-genome 60-mer oligonucleotide microarrays were also carried out. RNA expression profiles and the CGH of Nelfinavir resistant vs sensitive Leishmania amastigotes suggest that parasites regulate mRNA levels either by modulating gene copy numbers through chromosome aneuploidy, or gene deletion/duplication by homologous recombination. Interestingly, supernumerary chromosomes 6 and 11 in the resistant parasites lead to upregulation of the ABC class of transporters, which are involved in vesicular trafficking. Transporter assays using radiolabeled Nelfinavir suggest that the drug accumulates in greater amounts in the resistant parasites and in a time dependent manner. Furthermore, high-resolution electron microscopy showed an increased number of vacuoles in Nelfinavir-resistant parasites. Together these results suggest that Nelfinavir is rapidly and dramatically sequestered in these intracellular vesicles.
2013-06-27 | GSE42196 | GEO
Project description:Leishmania infantum is the causative agent of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis in Mediterranean areas and also acts as an opportunistic parasite in HIV patients. Metacyclic promastigotes are transmitted during bloodmeals of the sand-fly host after development. Metacyclogenesis can be micmiked in axenic cultures and peanut lectin (PNA) agglutination followed by two-step centrifugation allows the separation of procyclic and metacyclic promastigotes in L. major. The purpose of this study is to isolate both fractions simultaneously from the same population of L. infantum in stationary phase of axenic culture and compare their expression profiles through DNA microarrays, specially focusing on metacyclic promastigotes. Whole-genome shotgun DNA microarrays were constructed and used to analyse the stationary-phase procyclic and metacyclic expression profiles. Four biological replicates of the experiment were performed and analysed, so that 322 clones with meaningful values of stage-specific regulation were selected. We found several genes dealing with primary metabolism, differentiation in procyclic promastigotes and with development of infectivity in metacyclic promastigotes. The differences we have found between the procyclic (PNA+) and metacyclic (PNA-) transcriptomes demonstrate that negative selection of metacyclic promastigotes through PNA agglutination is suitable in L. infantum and both fractions can be isolated. In addition, up-regulation of genes implied in lipophosphoglycan (LPG), proteophosphoglycan (PPG) and glycoprotein biosynthesis indicate that metacyclic promastigotes are related with infectivity. Keywords: comparative hybridization between cDNAs from procyclic PNA+ and metacyclic PNA- promastigotes of L.infantum
2009-05-14 | GSE11269 | GEO
Project description:Leishmania (L.) are obligated intracellular protozoan parasites that develop electively in macrophages. These cells that are acting as a safe shelter for the pathogens but also as their ultimate killer, making them the alpha and the omega during leishmaniasis diseases. Macrophages are able to secrete a remarkably diverse set of regulators known to influence the physiological functions and differentiation of neighboring cells to trigger an adaptive immune response of protective Th1-type cells, whereas parasites have developed a wide range of mechanisms to circumvent the hostâs immune responses. Most of our understanding of this host-parasite conflict, in the context of macrophage invasion by L. major metacyclic promastigotes, has been gleaned from studies investigating the macrophage responses at late and unique time points after infection. To investigate the dynamics of this duel, we have analyzed the transciptomic profile of monocyte-derived human macrophages at different time points during the first 24h upon in vitro infection using high throughput microarray platform. The gene expression profile of 17,838 genes showed high expression variability between the three human donors at different time points post infection. Cross comparison between the three donors allowed the identification of a common set of expressed genes coding for inflammatory and chemotactic molecules, transcription factors, apoptosis inhibition, glucose synthesis and heme metabolism. The findings presented in this work suggest that transcriptome dynamics of macrophages early during the first 24h post infection enable to identify novel key pathways deregulated upon L. major invasion. Our reported set of expressed genes will be useful in future rounds of data mining and functional analyses. In total 27 samples from three different donors were analyzed. For each donor, samples at 0h, 3h, 6h, 12h and 24h of culture were used as controls. For each donor, samples of cells infected with metacyclic Leishmania major parasites at 3h, 6h, 12h and 24h post-infection were analyzed.
2015-12-31 | E-GEOD-43661 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Drug resistance is a major public health challenge in Leishmaniasis chemotherapy, particularly in the case of emerging Leishmania/HIV-1 co-infections. Recently, we have delineated the mechanism of cell death induced by the HIV-1 protease inhibitor, Nelfinavir, in the Leishmania parasite. In order to investigate the underlying molecular mechanism involved in Nelfinavir resistance, in vitro Nelfinavir resistant amastigotes were developed by direct drug pressure in culture. RNA expression profiling analyses of closely related Leishmania species were used as a screening tool to compare Nelfinavir-resistant and -sensitive parasites in order to identify candidate genes involved in drug resistance, and several genes were found to be differentially expressed. Comparative gene hybridization (CGH) analyses of Nelfinavir-resistant and -sensitive Leishmania using whole-genome 60-mer oligonucleotide microarrays were also carried out. RNA expression profiles and the CGH of Nelfinavir resistant vs sensitive Leishmania amastigotes suggest that parasites regulate mRNA levels either by modulating gene copy numbers through chromosome aneuploidy, or gene deletion/duplication by homologous recombination. Interestingly, supernumerary chromosomes 6 and 11 in the resistant parasites lead to upregulation of the ABC class of transporters, which are involved in vesicular trafficking. Transporter assays using radiolabeled Nelfinavir suggest that the drug accumulates in greater amounts in the resistant parasites and in a time dependent manner. Furthermore, high-resolution electron microscopy showed an increased number of vacuoles in Nelfinavir-resistant parasites. Together these results suggest that Nelfinavir is rapidly and dramatically sequestered in these intracellular vesicles.
2013-06-27 | GSE42195 | GEO
Project description:Leishmania (L) are intracellular protozoan parasites which are able to survive and replicate within the harsh and potentially hostile phago-lysosomal environment of mammalian mononuclear phagocytes. A complex interplay then takes place between the macrophage (MM-NM-&) striving to eliminate the pathogen and the parasite struggling for its own survival. To investigate, at the transcriptional level, this host-parasite conflict in the context of monocyte-derived human MM-NM-&s (MDM) infection by L. major metacyclic promastigotes, the quantitative technique of serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was used. After extracting mRNA from resting human MM-NM-&s, Leishmania-infected human MM-NM-&s and L. major parasites, three SAGE libraries were constructed and sequenced generating up to 28,173; 57,514 and 33,906 tags respectively (corresponding to 12,946; 23,442 and 9,530 unique tags). Using computational data analysis and direct comparison to 394,059 publicly available experimental human tags, the parasite and the host cell transcriptomes were then simultaneously characterized from the mixed cellular extract, allowing to confidently discriminate host from parasite transcripts. This procedure led us to reliably assign 3,814 tags to MM-NM-&sM-bM-^@M-^Y and 3,666 tags to L. major parasitesM-bM-^@M-^Y transcripts. We focused on those, showing significant changes in their expression that are likely to be relevant to the pathogenesis of parasite infection: (i) human MM-NM-&s genes, belonging to key immune response proteins (i.e. IFNM-NM-3 pathway, S100 and chemokine families) and (ii) a group of Leishmania genes showing a preferential expression at the intra-cellular developing stage of the parasite. Dual SAGE transcriptome analysis provided a useful, powerful and accurate approach to discriminate between genes of human or parasitic origin in Leishmania-infected human MM-NM-&s. The findings presented in this work suggest that the Leishmania parasite is modulating key transcripts in the human MM-NM-&s that may be beneficial for its establishment and survival and provided an overview of gene expression at two developmental stages of the parasite, namely metacyclic promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes, indicating a broad difference between their transcriptomic profiles. Finally, our reported set of expressed genes could deserve future rounds of data mining and gene annotation. Keywords: Leishmania major, Human macrophages, in vitro, infection, transcriptome, SAGE Human monocyte derived macrophages (MDM) from four healthy donors were infected in vitro for 24 hours with metacyclic Leishmania major parasites (ratio 1:5) and the pool was used to construct SAGE library. Non infected MDM from the same donors and from metacyclic Leishmania major parasites were used to construct the two controls' SAGE libraries.
2008-05-21 | E-GEOD-10442 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The ability of Leishmania to survive in their insect or mammalian host is dependent upon an ability to sense and adapt to changes in the microenvironment. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying the parasite response to environmental changes, such as nutrient availability. To elucidate nutrient stress response pathways in Leishmania donovani, we have used purine starvation as the paradigm. The salvage of purines from the host milieu is obligatory for parasite replication; nevertheless, purine-starved parasites can persist in culture without supplementary purine for over 3 months, indicating that the response to purine starvation is robust and engenders parasite survival under conditions of extreme scarcity. To understand metabolic reprogramming during purine starvation we have employed global approaches. Whole proteome comparisons between purine-starved and purine-replete parasites over a 6-48 h span have revealed a temporal and coordinated response to purine starvation. Purine transporters and enzymes involved in acquisition at the cell surface are upregulated within a few hours of purine removal from the media, while other key purine salvage components are upregulated later in the time-course and more modestly. After 48 h, the proteome of purine-starved parasites is extensively remodeled and adaptations to purine stress appear tailored to deal with both purine deprivation and general stress. To probe the molecular mechanisms affecting proteome remodeling in response to purine starvation, comparative RNA-seq analyses, qRT-PCR, and luciferase reporter assays were performed on purine-starved versus purine-replete parasites. While the regulation of a minority of proteins tracked with changes at the mRNA level, for many regulated proteins it appears that proteome remodeling during purine stress occurs primarily via translational and post-translational mechanisms.
2014-02-01 | GSE48394 | GEO