Phylogenetic character mapping of proteomic diversity shows high correlation with subspecific phylogenetic diversity in Trypanosoma cruzi

Abstract

We performed a phylogenetic character mapping on 26 stocks of Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite responsible for Chagas disease, and 2 stocks of the sister taxon T. cruzi marinkellei to test for possible associations between T. cruzi-subspecific phylogenetic diversity and levels of protein expression, as examined by proteomic analysis and mass spectrometry. We observed a high level of correlation (P < 10) between genetic distance, as established by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, and proteomic dissimilarities estimated by proteomic Euclidian distances. Several proteins were found to be specifically associated to T. cruzi phylogenetic subdivisions (discrete typing units). This study explores the previously uncharacterized links between infraspecific phylogenetic diversity and gene expression in a human pathogen. It opens the way to searching for new vaccine and drug targets and for identification of specific biomarkers at the subspecific level of pathogens.infectious disease | parallel evolution | gene expression | Chagas disease | parasite

Is Predominant Clonal Evolution a Common Evolutionary Adaptation to Parasitism in Pathogenic Parasitic Protozoa, Fungi, Bacteria, and Viruses?

“…All T. cruzi near-clades are very stable in space (from the United States to Argentina and Brazil), and time. They have been corroborated by many genetic markers, present some ecological and epidemiological specificities and exhibit differential protein expression patterns (Machin et al, 2014;Telleria et al, 2010). Interestingly, the six near-clades can be also discriminated by antigen genes (Rozas et al, 2007), although these genes undergo a strong selective pressure.…”

“…Population genetic interpretation of MLEE variability made it possible to show that the 'zymodemes' (MLEE MLGs) evidenced by Miles' pioneering studies (1978) could be equated to genetic clones (Tibayrenc et al, 1981(Tibayrenc et al, , 1986. In this species, there is LD: (1) among MLEE loci (Tibayrenc et al, 1981(Tibayrenc et al, , 1986 and (2) between different kinds of markers: nuclear and mitochondrial polymorphisms (de Freitas et al, 2006;Machado and Ayala, 2001;Ramírez et al, 2011;Spotorno et al, 2008), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and MLEE (Tibayrenc et al, 1993;Brisse et al, 2000), microsatellite polymorphism and DNA content , neutral markers and strongly selected antigen genes (Lima et al, 2012;Rozas et al, 2007), as well as neutral genetic markers and the protein polymorphism revealed by proteomic analysis (Telleria et al, 2010). Although Minning et al (2011) considered that their data suggested 'genetic exchange playing a major role in T. cruzi population structure', in their study, there is an obvious LD between CNV polymorphism and near-clade classification: all near-clade TCI strains clearly group together, as do all non-TCI strains (see their Fig.…”

“…We have used T. cruzi near-clades to explore their specificity for gene expression (Machin et al, 2014;Telleria et al, 2010).…”

Reproductive clonality of pathogens: A perspective on pathogenic viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasitic protozoa

“…The search for the phylogenetic signal and the design of a clear phylogenetic framework should precede investigation of the epidemiological/biomedical properties of the species under study, in a phylogenetic character-mapping (PCM) process (222,230). "Placing evolutionary changes in their clonal context provides the power to relate phenotype to genotype" (ref.…”

Mechanism of Congenital Chagas Disease: Effective Infection Depends on the Interplay Between Trypanosoma cruzi and the Different Tissue Compartments in the Chorionic Villi of the Human Placenta

“…cruzi display great biological, biochemical and genetic diversity, therefore different strains of the parasite have been identified and classified into six discrete typing units (DTU) (Telleria et al, 2010;Zingales et al, 2009). T. cruzi strains corresponding to different DTUs might have relevant consequences on congenital transmission and fetal/neonatal pathology.…”