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Metacyclic promastigotes are transmitted during bloodmeals after development inside the gut of the sandfly vector. The isolation from axenic cultures of procyclic and metacyclic promastigotes by peanut lectin agglutination followed by differential centrifugation is controversial in Leishmania infantum. The purpose of this study has been to isolate both fractions simultaneously from the same population in stationary phase of axenic culture and compare their expression profiles by whole-genome shotgun DNA microarrays. The 317 genes found with meaningful values of stage-specific regulation demonstrate that negative selection of metacyclic promastigotes by PNA agglutination is feasible in L. infantum and both fractions can be isolated. This subpopulation up-regulates a cysteine peptidase A and several genes involved in lipophosphoglycan, proteophosphoglycan and glycoprotein biosynthesis, all related with infectivity. In fact, we have confirmed the increased infection rate of PNA(-) promastigotes by U937 human cell line infection experiments. These data support that metacyclic promastigotes are related with infectivity and the lack of agglutination with PNA is a phenotypic marker for this subpopulation.

BackgroundThe extracellular promastigote and the intracellular amastigote stages alternate in the digenetic life cycle of the trypanosomatid parasite Leishmania. Amastigotes develop inside parasitophorous vacuoles of mammalian phagocytes, where they tolerate extreme environmental conditions. Temperature increase and pH decrease are crucial factors in the multifactorial differentiation process of promastigotes to amastigotes. Although expression profiling approaches for axenic, cell culture- and lesion-derived amastigotes have already been reported, the specific influence of temperature increase and acidification of the environment on developmental regulation of genes has not been previously studied. For the first time, we have used custom L. infantum genomic DNA microarrays to compare the isolated and the combined effects of both factors on the transcriptome. ResultsImmunofluorescence analysis of promastigote-specific glycoprotein gp46 and expression modulation analysis of the amastigote-specific A2 gene have revealed that concomitant exposure to temperature increase and acidification leads to amastigote-like forms. The temperature-induced gene expression profile in the absence of pH variation resembles the profile obtained under combined exposure to both factors unlike that obtained for exposure to acidification alone. In fact, the subsequent fold change-based global iterative hierarchical clustering analysis supports these findings.ConclusionsThe specific influence of temperature and pH on the differential regulation of genes described in this study and the evidence provided by clustering analysis is consistent with the predominant role of temperature increase over extracellular pH decrease in the amastigote differentiation process, which provides new insights into Leishmania physiology.

BackgroundLeishmania infantum is the etiological agent of zoonotical visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean basin. A recent outbreak in humans has been recently reported in central Spain. Leishmania spp. parasites are transmitted to the mammalian host by the bite of sand flies. The primary vector of L. infantum in Spain is Phlebotomus perniciosus. For decades, research on these parasites has involved the axenic culture model of the promastigote stage including gene expression profiling studies performed in the post-genome era. Unlike the controversial axenic culturing of amastigotes, promastigote cultures are generally accepted and used, although with the precaution of avoiding excessive culture passage.The primary objective of this differentiation study is to compare the gene expression profiles of promastigotes isolated from the foregut of the sand fly and amastigotes. For this purpose, P. perniciosus sand flies were infected with L. infantum and differentiated promastigotes were extracted by dissection of the foreguts. Shotgun DNA microarray hybridization analyses allowed for transcriptome comparison of these promastigotes with amastigotes obtained by infection of the U937 cell line. The results have been compared with those described in published expression analyses using axenic promastigotes.ResultsA total of 277 up-regulated genes were found through this hybridization experiment. The comparison of these particular results with published gene expression profile analyses performed using the same experimental procedure to study cultured promastigotes in stationary phase versus amastigotes revealed considerable differences (approximately 95% of the up-regulated genes were different). We found that the up-regulation rate is lower in amastigotes than in sand fly-derived promastigotes, which is in agreement with the over-expression of genes involved in gene expression regulation and signaling in those promastigote populations.ConclusionsThe up-regulation rate is lower in intracellular amastigotes than in promastigotes obtained from the sand fly gut. This was also reported by us using the promastigote culture model and is an evidence for the hypothesis of promastigote preadaptation towards life in the intracellular environment. Regarding transcript abundance, the set of differentially regulated genes is notably different when using promastigotes from the sand fly foregut instead of axenic cultures.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-849) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A proteome analysis of the promastigote stage of the trypanosomatid parasite Leishmania infantum (MON-1 zymodeme) is described here for the first time. Total protein extracts were prepared at early logarithmic and stationary phases of replicate axenic cultures and processed by 2D electrophoresis (pH 3-10). A total of 28 differentially regulated proteins were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-tandem time of flight mass spectrometry. This approach has revealed that the electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) and the eukaryotic elongation factor 1α (eEF1α) subunit have the same differential expression pattern at the protein and mRNA levels, up-regulation in the stationary phase. A low-molecular-weight isoform and an alternatively processed form of the eEF1α subunit have been detected. A 51 kDa subunit of replication factor A is up-regulated in dividing logarithmic promastigotes. None of the proteins described here shows opposite differential regulation values with the corresponding mRNA levels. Taken together with previous approaches to the proteome and the transcriptome, this report contributes to the elucidation of the differential regulation patterns of the ETF, the eEF1α subunit, the 40S ribosomal protein S12, α-tubulin and the T-complex protein 1 subunit γ throughout the life cycle of the parasites from the genus Leishmania.

The life cycle of the trypanosomatid Crithidia fasciculata is monogenetic, as the unique hosts of these parasites are different species of culicids. The comparison of these non-pathogenic microorganisms evolutionary close to other species of trypanosomatids that develop digenetic life cycles and cause chronic severe sickness to millions of people worldwide is of outstanding interest. A ground-breaking analysis of differential protein abundance in Crithidia fasciculata is reported herein. The comparison of the outcome with previous gene expression profiling studies developed in the related human pathogens of the genus Leishmania has revealed substantial differences between the motile stages of these closely related organisms in abundance of proteins involved in catabolism, redox homeostasis, intracellular signalling, and gene expression regulation. As L. major and L. infantum agglutinate with peanut lectin and non-agglutinating parasites are more infective, the agglutination properties were evaluated in C. fasciculata. The result is that choanomastigotes are able to agglutinate with peanut lectin and a non-agglutinating subpopulation can be also isolated. As a difference with L. infantum, the non-agglutinating subpopulation over-expresses the whole machinery for maintenance of redox homeostasis and the translation factors eIF5a, EF1α and EF2, what suggests a relationship between the lack of agglutination and a differentiation process.

Zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease caused by Leishmania infantum in the Mediterranean Basin, where domestic dogs and wild canids are the main reservoirs. The promastigote stage replicates and develops within the gut of blood-sucking phlebotomine sand flies. Mature promastigotes are injected in the dermis of the mammalian host and differentiate into the amastigote stage within parasitophorous vacuoles of phagocytic cells. The major vector of L. infantum in Spain is Phlebotomus perniciosus. Promastigotes are routinely axenized and cultured to mimic in vitro the conditions inside the insect gut, which allows for most molecular, cellular, immunological and therapeutical studies otherwise inviable. Culture passages are known to decrease infectivity, which is restored by passage through laboratory animals. The most appropriate source of promastigotes is the gut of the vector host but isolation of the parasite is technically challenging. In fact, this option is not viable unless small samples are sufficient for downstream applications like promastigote cultures and nucleic acid amplification. In this study, in vitro infectivity and differential gene expression have been studied in cultured promastigotes at the stationary phase and in promastigotes isolated from the stomodeal valve of the sand fly P. perniciosus. About 20 ng RNA per sample could be isolated. Each sample contained L. infantum promastigotes from 20 sand flies. RNA was successfully amplified and processed for shotgun genome microarray hybridization analysis. Most differentially regulated genes are involved in regulation of gene expression, intracellular signaling, amino acid metabolism and biosynthesis of surface molecules. Interestingly, meta-analysis by hierarchical clustering supports that up-regulation of 22.4% of the differentially regulated genes is specifically enhanced by the microenvironment (i.e. sand fly gut or culture). The correlation between cultured and naturally developed promastigotes is strong but not very high (Pearson coefficient R2 = 0.727). Therefore, the influence of promastigote culturing should be evaluated case-by-case in experimentation.

BackgroundLeishmania infantum is the protozoan parasite responsible for zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean basin. A recent outbreak in humans has been reported in this area. The life cycle of the parasite is digenetic. The promastigote stage develops within the gut of phlebotomine sand flies, whereas amastigotes survive and multiply within phagolysosomes of mammalian host phagocytes. The major vector of L. infantum in Spain is Phlebotomus perniciosus. The axenic culture model of promastigotes is generally used because it is able to mimic the conditions of the natural environment (i.e. the sand fly vector gut). However, infectivity decreases with culture passages and infection of laboratory animals is frequently required. Enrichment of the stationary phase population in highly infective metacyclic promastigotes is achieved by negative selection with peanut agglutinin (PNA), which is possible only in certain Leishmania species such as L. major and L. infantum. In this study, in vitro infectivity and differential gene expression of cultured PNA-negative promastigotes (Pro-PNA−) and metacyclic promastigotes isolated from the sand fly anterior thoracic midgut (Pro-Pper) have been compared.ResultsIn vitro infectivity is about 30 % higher in terms of rate of infected cells and number of amastigotes per infected cell in Pro-Pper than in Pro-PNA−. This finding is in agreement with up-regulation of a leishmanolysin gene (gp63) and genes involved in biosynthesis of glycosylinositolphospholipids (GIPL), lipophosphoglycan (LPG) and proteophosphoglycan (PPG) in Pro-Pper. In addition, differences between Pro-Pper and Pro-PNA− in genes involved in important cellular processes (e.g. signaling and regulation of gene expression) have been found.ConclusionsPro-Pper are significantly more infective than peanut lectin non-agglutinating ones. Therefore, negative selection with PNA is an appropriate method for isolating metacyclic promastigotes in stationary phase of axenic culture but it does not allow reaching the in vitro infectivity levels of Pro-Pper. Indeed, GIPL, LPG and PPG biosynthetic genes together with a gp63 gene are up-regulated in Pro-Pper and interestingly, the correlation coefficient between both transcriptomes in terms of transcript abundance is R2 = 0.68. This means that the correlation is sufficiently high to consider that both samples are physiologically comparable (i.e. the experiment was correctly designed and performed) and sufficiently low to conclude that important differences in transcript abundance have been found. Therefore, the implications of axenic culture should be evaluated case-by-case in each experimental design even when the stationary phase population in culture is enriched in metacyclic promastigotes by negative selection with PNA.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-2672-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.