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Differential gene expression in mice infected with distinct Toxoplasma gondii strains

ABSTRACT: Transcriptome analysis of peritoneal lavage of mice infected with T. gondii Toxoplasma gondii is the causative agent of toxoplasmosis in human and animals. In mouse model, T. gondii strains can be divided into three groups, including the virulent, intermediately virulent and non-virulent. The clonal Type I, II and III T. gondii strains belong to these three groups respectively. To better understand the basis of virulence phenotypes, we investigated mouse gene expression responses to the infection of different T. gondii strains at day 5 post intraperitoneal inoculation with 500 tachyzoites. The transcriptomes of mouse peritoneal cells showed that 1927, 1573, and 1009 transcripts were altered more than 2 fold by Type I, II and III infections, respectively, and majority of altered transcripts were shared. Overall transcription patterns were similar in Type I and Type II infections and both had greater changes than that of Type III. Quantification of parasite burden in mouse spleens showed that Type I was 1000 times higher than Type II, and Type II was 20 times higher than Type III. Fluorescence activated cell sorting revealed that Type I and II infections had comparable macrophage populations and both were higher than Type III infection. In addition, Type I infection had higher percentage of neutrophils than that of Type II and III. Taken together, these results suggested that there is a common gene expression response to T. gondii infection in mice. This response is further modified by parasite strain specific factors that determine their distinct virulence phenotypes.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE34416 | GEO | 2011/12/22

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA149663

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:The outcome of infections with Toxoplasma gondii in humans is dependent in part on the genetic makeup of the infecting organism. Recent studies have indicated that most infecting Toxoplasma organisms fall into 1 of 3 canonical lineages. Previous studies have investigated the effects of Toxoplasma on its host cell transcriptome. Little is known, however, about the effects of three canonical lineages on brain cells, the principal site of parasite lifelong persistence. In this study, we examined the transcriptional profile of human neuroepithelioma cells in response to T. gondii infection using microarray analysis to characterize the strain-specific host cell response to 3 canonical T. gondii strains. We found that the extent of the expression changes varied considerably among the three strains. Neuroepithelial cells infected with type I exhibited the most differential gene expression, whereas type II infected cells had a substantially smaller number of genes which were differentially expressed. Cells infected with type III exhibited intermediate effects on gene expression. The three strains also differed in the individual genes and gene pathways which were altered following cellular infection. For example, gene ontology (GO) analysis indicated that type I infection largely affects genes related to central nervous system while type III infection largely alters genes which affect nucleotide metabolism; type II infection does not alter expression of a clearly defined set of genes. Moreover, Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) revealed the sophistication of different strain in its interactions with the host. These differences may explain some of the variation in the neurobiological effects of different strains of Toxoplasma on infected individuals. We infected SK-N-MC cells with 3 canonical Toxoplasma strains and assessed their gene expression in RNA at 20 hours post-infection using Affymetrix GeneChip. Infections and controls (no tachyzoites) were performed in duplicate and experiments for each strain were carried out on three separate occasions in order to include both technical replicates and biological replicates.

Project description:The population structure of Toxoplasma gondii includes three highly prevalent clonal lineages, types I, II, and III, which differ greatly in virulence in the mouse model. Previous studies have implicated a family of serine threonine protein kinases found in rhoptries (ROPs) as important in mediating virulence differences between types I vs. III and II vs. III. Here, we explored the genetic basis of differences in virulence between the highly virulent type I lineage and moderately virulent type II based on a new genetic cross and linkage mapping. Genome-wide association revealed a single quantitative trait locus controls the > 4 log difference in lethality between these strains. Neither ROP16 nor ROP18, previously implicated in virulence differences in T. gondii, were found to contribute to differences between types I and II. Instead, the major virulence locus contained a cluster of pseudokinases denoted as rhoptry protein 5 (ROP5); this locus contains a tandem cluster of polymorphic alleles that differed in expression levels between strains. ROP5 alleles contained only part of the catalytic triad of canonical S/T kinases, and consistent with this they lack demonstrable kinase activity in vitro. Genetic disruption of the rop5 locus in the type I lineage lead to a > 5 log increase in the lethal dose, and surviving mice developed lasting immunity and were protected from an otherwise lethal challenge. These findings reveal that amplification of a polymorphic cluster of pseudokinases plays an important role in pathogenesis of toxoplasmosis in the mouse model. We used a new genotyping protocol based on hybridization of parental and recombinant progeny genomic DNA (gDNA) to Affymetrix gene arrays constructed for T. gondii (http://ancillary.toxodb.org/docs/Array-Tutorial.html). We identified 1,603 single feature polymorphisms (SFP) based on probes that successfully discriminated perfect match (type II) from mismatch (type I) hybridization across all clones and provided reliable SFP markers for this cross.

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Differential gene expression in mice infected with distinct Toxoplasma gondii strains

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