Human microsporidian pathogen <i>Encephalitozoon intestinalis</i> impinges on enterocyte membrane trafficking and signaling

Flores, Juan; Takvorian, Peter M.; Weiss, Louis M.; Cali, Ann; Gao, Nan

doi:10.1242/jcs.253757

“…Analysis of our SBF-SEM datasets, allowed us to generate complete 3D reconstructions of the intracellular niche of E. intestinalis at 24 h and 48 h post infection (Figure 1A). Similar to recently published data [7], we found that early in infection, parasites are tightly associated with host cell mitochondria and ER (Figure 1A). We also observed that the host mitochondria were less tubular and more fragmented in infected cells, a finding that was corroborated by light microscopy (Figure 1B).…”

supporting

confidence: 92%

Visualizing the Intracellular Niche of Human-Infecting Microsporidia Using Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscopy

Antao

¹

,

Lam²,

Davydov³

et al. 2022

Microscopy and Microanalysis

1

0

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“…Nematodes, insects, and vertebrates all have strong transcriptional responses to infection by microsporidia, though the responses appear to be quite diverse [ 73 , 74 ]. For example, antimicrobial peptides are observed to be upregulated in silkworms and cytokines are induced in infected human cells [ 75 , 76 ]. The responses seen in these other animals are quite different than what is observed in Caenorhabditis .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of Nematocida microsporidia gene expression and host response in Caenorhabditis nematodes

Wan

¹

,

Troemel

²

,

Reinke

³

2022

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Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites that are known to infect most types of animals. Many species of microsporidia can infect multiple related hosts, but it is not known if microsporidia express different genes depending upon which host species is infected or if the host response to infection is specific to each microsporidia species. To address these questions, we took advantage of two species of Nematocida microsporidia, N. parisii and N. ausubeli, that infect two species of Caenorhabditis nematodes, C. elegans and C. briggsae. We performed RNA-seq at several time points for each host infected with either microsporidia species. We observed that Nematocida transcription was largely independent of its host. We also observed that the host transcriptional response was similar when infected with either microsporidia species. Finally, we analyzed if the host response to microsporidia infection was conserved across host species. We observed that although many of the genes upregulated in response to infection are not direct orthologs, the same expanded gene families are upregulated in both Caenorhabditis hosts. Together our results describe the transcriptional interactions of Nematocida infection in Caenorhabditis hosts and demonstrate that these responses are evolutionarily conserved.

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“…Nematodes, insects, and vertebrates all have strong transcriptional responses to infection by microsporidia, though the responses appear to be quite diverse (Szumowski and Troemel, 2015; Midttun et al ., 2020). For example, antimicrobial peptides are observed to be upregulated in silkworms and cytokines are induced in infected human cells (Ma et al ., 2013; Flores et al ., 2021). The responses seen in these other animals are quite different than what is observed in Caenorhabditis .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of Nematocida microsporidia gene expression and host response in Caenorhabditis nematodes

Wan

¹

,

Troemel

²

,

Reinke

³

2022

Preprint

1

0

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Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites that are known to infect most types of animals. Many species of microsporidia can infect multiple related hosts, but it is not known if microsporidia express different genes depending upon which host species is infected or if the host response to infection is specific to each microsporidia species. To address these questions, we took advantage of two species of Nematocida microsporidia, N. parisii and N. ausubeli, that infect two species of Caenorhabditis nematodes, C. elegans and C. briggsae. We performed RNA-seq at several time points for each host infected with either microsporidia species. We observed that Nematocida transcription was largely independent of its host. We also observed that the host transcriptional response was similar when infected with either microsporidia species. Finally, we analyzed if the host response to microsporidia infection was conserved across host species. We observed that although many of the genes upregulated in response to infection are not direct orthologs, the same expanded gene families are upregulated in both Caenorhabditis hosts. Together our results describe the transcriptional interactions of Nematocida infection in Caenorhabditis hosts and demonstrate that these responses are evolutionarily conserved.Significance statementMicrosporidia are a powerful model to study pathogen evolution, but much is still unknown about how these pathogens have evolved to infect multiple host species. We found that microsporidia express most of their genes similarly even when they are infecting different host species and that related host species respond similarly to different microsporidia. Our results suggests that there are conserved transcriptional responses during microsporidia infection.

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Human microsporidian pathogen Encephalitozoon intestinalis impinges on enterocyte membrane trafficking and signaling

Cited by 11 publications

References 100 publications

Visualizing the Intracellular Niche of Human-Infecting Microsporidia Using Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscopy

Visualizing the Intracellular Niche of Human-Infecting Microsporidia Using Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscopy

Conservation of Nematocida microsporidia gene expression and host response in Caenorhabditis nematodes

Conservation of Nematocida microsporidia gene expression and host response in Caenorhabditis nematodes

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