Characterization of the Toxoplasma gondii hsp60 gene sequences from different hosts and geographical locations

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most successful parasites, with the ability to invade all warmblooded animals, including humans. T. gondii heat shock protein 60 (TgHSP60) plays an important role in intracellular survival and in the differentiation of the parasite, and is also recognized as being associated with its virulence. In the present study, we examined sequence variation in the hsp60 coding region among five T. gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical regions, which were compared with the corresponding sequences of strains ME49, 76K, and GT1 available in the ToxoDB databases. The length of the T. gondii hsp60 sequence was 1728 bp for all strains, and the A+T content ranged from 41.96 to 42.13%. The sequence alignment of the 8 T. gondii strains identified 20 variable positions (0-1.44%) and showed 1.16% overall sequence 6907 ©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 13 (3): 6906-6911 (2014) Sequence variation in the T. gondii hsp60 gene variation, suggesting a relatively considerable sequence diversity. Phylogenetic analysis of hsp60 sequences using Bayesian inference and maximum parsimony differentiated the two major clonal lineage types into their respective clusters, and thus separated atypical strains from classical genotypes. The results of the present study suggested that the coding region of the hsp60 gene may represent a novel genetic marker for intraspecies phylogenetic analyses of T. gondii.

Sequence variation in the Toxoplasma gondii ROP20 gene among strains from different hosts and geographical locations

“…Of these variable positions, 18 were transitions (A↔G and C↔T) and 11 were transversions (A↔C, A↔T, G↔C, and G↔T) in the coding region of the ROP20 gene (R = transition/transversion = 1.6). These results were similar to those found in previous studies for Hsp60 and ROP17 (Lu et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2014).…”

“…Based on the 18 T. gondii strains examined in the present study, the respective ROP20 gene sequences could distinguish the genotype I and ToxoDB #9 strains illustrating the differentiation between the T. gondii genotypes. However, as compared to the GRA5, GRA6, and Hsp60 genes, ROP20 is not as good as them, because they could distinguish the genotype I and other genotypes (Fazaeli et al, 2000;Chen et al, 2012b;Lu et al, 2014).…”

Genetic Diversity of <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> Strains from Different Hosts and Geographical Regions by Sequence Analysis of <i>GRA20</i> Gene

“…In this study, we found GRA20 gene was very diverse in type III, indicating the functions may be different, too. Our results were consistent with that of some previous studies using other genetic markers, such as GRA5, Rop17 , and HSP60 for genotyping [ 9 , 17 , 18 ], but different to some previous studies, such as Rop38 and eIF4A [ 19 , 20 ].…”

Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii in Food Animals and Humans (2000–2017) From China

“…The prevalence and T. gondii isolates from cats in China was previously summarized by Yang et al ( Yang et al, 2015 ). Three T. gondii strains were isolated from sheep and genotyped as ToxoDB#9 ( Yang et al, 2017b ) and ToxoDB#1 ( Chen et al, 1988 ; Lu et al, 2014 ). Two T. gondii strains were isolated from chickens and were genotyped as ToxoDB#225 and Type I ( Zhao et al, 2012 ; Wang et al, 2015 ).…”