Project description:Giardia duodenalis a species-complex of common gastrointestinal protists of major medical and veterinary importance. This complex is currently subclassifed as ‘Assemblages’, with Assemblage A and B infective to humans. To date, post-genomic proteomics are derived exclusively from Assemblage A, biasing understanding of these parasites’ biology. This bias is particularly notable, as Assemble B is the more prevalent cause of human infections. To address this gap, we quantitatively analysed proteomes of the intestinal ‘trophozoite’ stage of three Assemblage B isolates, including the genome reference (GS/M) and two clinical isolates (BRIS/91/HEPU/1279 and BRIS/92/HEPU/1487), during in vitro axenic culture. We used spectrum-to-peptide matching metrics to infer currently unknown intra-assemblage variation. We identified and quantified over 3000 proteins in the GS isolate, but demonstrated significant isolate-dependent losses in peptide and protein identifications in non-reference isolates, suggesting significant intra-assemblage variation. We also explore differential protein expression between in vitro cultured subpopulations enriched for dividing relative to feeding cells. This data is an important proteomic baseline for Assemblage B, and highlights unique differences heretofore avoided in post-genomic Giardia proteomics.
Project description:Giardia duodenalis is a protozoan parasite of a wide range of vertebrates and one of the leading causes of gastroenteritis worldwide. G. duodenalis is a species complex of 8 assemblages with the zoonotic assemblage A as one of two discrete subtypes that is infective for humans. With increasing genomic and transcriptomic data now publicly available through the centralised giardiaDB.org, we have quantitatively analysed the proteomes of 8 G. duodenalis assemblage A strains (7 A1 and 1 A2) to provide a comprehensive proteomic baseline to complement these studies. Protein analysis identified a non-redundant total of 1220 proteins with an average of 764 proteins in each strain. At least 10% of all proteins identified were from the 4 protein families in the G. duodenalis variable genome, and substantial differences in number and abundance profiles in the Variable Surface Protein (VSP) family was observed. We also searched the 8 strains against both assemblage A genomes (subassemblage A1 and A2 genomes) and showed losses in protein identifications, especially for protein identifications associated with Giardia variable gene families which are sub-assemblage specific. We observed two expression profiles of VSPs within Giardia, which was independent to host origin, subassemblage, geographic origin and introduction to axenic culture and may indicate variation in surface antigen switching events and population heterogeneity. We hypothesise this variation may be related to karotype and chromosomal variation, which would indicate an assemblage-independent mechanism of variation in G. duodenalis.
Project description:To investigate the transcriptional responses of intestinal epithelial cells and Giardia intestinalis, assemblage A isolate WB-C6, trophozoites during infection, we infected human enteroids with preconditioned trophozoites for 1h and 3h. Giardia intestinalis trophozoites were preconditioned before the infection with either DMEM/F-12 or DMEM/F-12 supplemented with 10% FBS to modify the trophozoites’ fitness.
Project description:Genetic and limited palaeoanthropological data suggest that Denisovans, a sister group to Neanderthals, were once widely distributed in eastern Eurasia, likely stretching from high-latitude Siberia, to the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau, to the low-latitude subtropical regions of southeast Asia. This suggests that Denisovans were capable of adapting to a highly diverse range of environments, but archaeological evidence for this is currently limited. As a result, we know little about their behaviours, including subsistence strategies, across the vast areas they likely occupied. Here, we describe the late Middle to Late Pleistocene faunal assemblage from Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, where the Xiahe Denisovan mandible and Denisovan sedimentary mtDNA were found, by integrating proteomic screening into traditional zooarchaeological analysis. The results indicate that the faunal assemblage consists of a diverse range of animals, including megafauna, large mammals, small mammals and birds, but is dominated by medium-sized herbivores. Frequent cut marks and percussion traces on bone surfaces throughout the assemblage, even on carnivore bones, indicate that Denisovan activities in Baishiya Karst Cave from at least 190 to 30 thousand years are responsible for the fauna assemblage accumulation. Thorough utilization of acquired animal resources, even perhaps the fur, too, might have helped Denisovans to survive through the last two glacial-interglacial cycles on the cold high-altitude Tibetan Plateau. Our results shed new light on Denisovan behaviours and their adaptations to the diverse and fluctuated environments in the Middle and Late Pleistocene eastern Eurasia.