Acute Toxoplasma Gondii Infection in Cats Induced Tissue-Specific Transcriptional Response Dominated by Immune Signatures

Abstract

RNA-sequencing was used to detect transcriptional changes in six tissues of cats, seven days after T. gondii infection. A total of 737 genes were differentially expressed (DEGs), of which 410 were up-regulated and 327 were down-regulated. The liver exhibited 151 DEGs, lung (149 DEGs), small intestine (130 DEGs), heart (123 DEGs), brain (104 DEGs), and spleen (80 DEGs)-suggesting tissue-specific transcriptional patterns. Gene ontology and KEGG analyses identified DEGs enriched in immune pathways, such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, Jak-STAT signaling pathway, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, T cell receptor signaling pathway, and the cytosolic DNA sensing pathway. C-X-C motif chemokine 10 (CXCL10) was involved in most of the immune-related pathways. PI3K/Akt expression was down-regulated in all tissues, except the spleen. The genes for phosphatase, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, Hes Family BHLH Transcription Factor 1, and guanylate-binding protein 5, playing various roles in immune defense, were co-expressed across various feline tissues. Multivariate K-means clustering analysis produced seven gene clusters featuring similar gene expression patterns specific to individual tissues, with lung tissue cluster having the largest number of DEGs. These findings suggest the presence of a broad immune defense mechanism across various tissues in cats against acute T. gondii infection.

Global Transcriptome Profiling of Multiple Porcine Organs Reveals Toxoplasma gondii-Induced Transcriptional Landscapes

“…The transcriptome libraries were sequenced using IlluminaHiSeq™2000 according to the manufacturer's instructions. Adaptors and low quality sequencing reads were filtered using a quality cutoff score of Q20, which is widely used for quality control analysis (33–37). The resulting clean reads were mapped against the pig ( Sus scrofa domesticus ) reference genome (Sscrofa10.2) using SOAP aligner/SOAP2 software and genomic annotation data file (ref_Sscrofa10.2_top_level.gff3).…”

A Comparison of Transcriptional Diversity of Swine Macrophages Infected With TgHB1 Strain of Toxoplasma gondii Isolated in China

“…To compare the immune response related differences of macrophage against TgHB1 China local isolate and the TgRH (standard I) and TgME49 (standard II) strains, we focused on the differentially expressed macrophage genes involved in immune pathways. All differentially expressed macrophage genes were mapped to the KEGG pathways and many pig's immune response related signaling pathways enriched with at least at one time point and in one strain (total 43 KEGG immune pathways mainly about pig immune system and signal transduction), which were summarized for deep analysis (Kanehisa et al, 2017 ; Cong et al, 2018 ). The enrichment factor of these 43 KEGG immune pathways was calculated for every T. gondii strain and at every time point, then heatmap was applied to show the difference of these immune related KEGG pathways among three T. gondii strains and at three time points ( Figure 7 ).…”

Acetylome analysis of the feline small intestine following Toxoplasma gondii infection

“…These results agree with that reported previously (Weinert et al 2011 ; Zhou et al 2016a ). T. gondii infection can alter the expression of genes involved in protein modification processes in feline small intestine (Cong et al 2018 ; Wang et al 2018 ). Thus, it is possible that the lack of clear acetylation motif in this study could be due to alteration in the genes participating in ubiquitous acetylation process by T. gondii infection.…”