Serotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in Cats (Felis domesticus) Reveals Predominance of Type II Infections in Germany

Maksimov, Pavlo; Zerweck, Johannes; Dubey, J. P.; Pantchev, Nikola; Frey, Caroline F.; Максимов, А. Ю.; Reimer, Ulf; Schutkowski, Mike; Hosseininejad, M.; Ziller, Mario; Conraths, Franz J.; Schares, Gereon

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080213

Cited by 21 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Toxoplasma gondii PRU strain belongs to the predominant genotype II reported in cats [16][17][18]. The capacity of the PRU strain to produce cysts in the brain of mice and oocysts in the gut of cats makes it a suitable candidate for experimental infections of cats [19].…”

Section: Parasite Infection and Sample Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptomic insights into the early host-pathogen interaction of cat intestine with Toxoplasma gondii

et al. 2018

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BackgroundAlthough sexual reproduction of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii exclusively occurs in the cat intestine, knowledge about the alteration of gene expression in the intestine of cats infected with T. gondii is still limited. Here, we investigated the temporal transcriptional changes that occur in the cat intestine during T. gondii infection.MethodsCats were infected with 100 T. gondii cysts and their intestines were collected at 6, 12, 18, 24, 72 and 96 hours post-infection (hpi). RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) Illumina technology was used to gain insight into the spectrum of genes that are differentially expressed due to infection. Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) was also used to validate the level of expression of a set of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) obtained by sequencing.ResultsOur transcriptome analysis revealed 2363 DEGs that were clustered into six unique patterns of gene expression across all the time points after infection. Our analysis revealed 56, 184, 404, 508, 400 and 811 DEGs in infected intestines compared to uninfected controls at 6, 12, 18, 24, 72 and 96 hpi, respectively. RNA-Seq results were confirmed by qRT-PCR. DEGs were mainly enriched in catalytic activity and metabolic process based on gene ontology enrichment analysis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis showed that transcriptional changes in the intestine of infected cats evolve over the course of infection, and the largest difference in the enriched pathways was observed at 96 hpi. The anti-T. gondii defense response of the feline host was mediated by Major Histocompatibility Complex class I, proteasomes, heat-shock proteins and fatty acid binding proteins.ConclusionsThis study revealed novel host factors, which may be critical for the successful establishment of an intracellular niche during T. gondii infection in the definitive feline host.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13071-018-3179-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Parasite Infection and Sample Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptomic insights into the early host-pathogen interaction of cat intestine with Toxoplasma gondii

et al. 2018

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“…Toxoplasma gondii strain used in this study was the PRU strain (Genotype II), which is maintained in our laboratory by passage through Kunming mice as described previously [49]. T. gondii type II was used in this study because it seems to be the predominant genotype circulating in cats [50][51][52]. Also, the PRU strain is able to produce brain tissue cysts in mouse and oocysts in the gut of cats and is thus a suitable candidate for a standardized challenge model in cats.…”

Section: Animals Parasite Infection and Sample Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global miRNA expression profiling of domestic cat livers following acute Toxoplasma gondii infection

Cong

Zhang

et al. 2017

Oncotarget

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Although microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in liver homeostasis, the extent to which they can be altered by Toxoplasma gondii infection is unknown. Here, we utilized small RNA sequencing and bioinformatic analyses to characterize miRNA expression profiles in the liver of domestic cats at 7 days after oral infection with T. gondii (Type II) strain. A total of 384 miRNAs were identified and 82 were differentially expressed, of which 33 were up-regulated and 49 down-regulated. Also, 5690 predicted host gene targets for the differentially expressed miRNAs were identified using the bioinformatic algorithm miRanda. Gene ontology analysis revealed that the predicted gene targets of the dysregulated miRNAs were significantly enriched in apoptosis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis showed that the predicted gene targets were involved in several pathways, including acute myeloid leukemia, central carbon metabolism in cancer, choline metabolism in cancer, estrogen signaling pathway, fatty acid degradation, lysosome, nucleotide excision repair, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, and VEGF signaling pathway. The expression level of 6 upregulated miRNAs (mmu-miR-21a-5p, mmu-miR-20a-5p, mmu-miR-17-5p, mmu-miR-30e-3p, mmu-miR-142a-3p, and mmu-miR-106b-3p) was confirmed by stem-loop quantitative reverse transcription PCR, which yielded results consistent with the sequencing data. These findings expand our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs underlying T. gondii pathogenesis and contribute new database information on cat miRNAs, opening a new perspective on the prevention and treatment of T. gondii infection.

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“…Avirulent Toxoplasma strains, particularly the type II archetype and its ancestral derivatives such as haplogroup 12 (33), are dominant in infections of humans and their domesticated animals in Europe and North America (34)(35)(36)(37). However, the infections caused by virulent type I strains are rare (19).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avirulent strains of Toxoplasma gondii infect macrophages by active invasion from the phagosome

Zhao

Marple

Ferguson

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Unlike most intracellular pathogens that gain access into host cells through endocytic pathways, Toxoplasma gondii initiates infection at the cell surface by active penetration through a moving junction and subsequent formation of a parasitophorous vacuole. Here, we describe a noncanonical pathway for T. gondii infection of macrophages, in which parasites are initially internalized through phagocytosis, and then actively invade from within a phagosomal compartment to form a parasitophorous vacuole. This phagosome to vacuole invasion (PTVI) pathway may represent an intermediary link between the endocytic and the penetrative routes for host cell entry by intracellular pathogens. The PTVI pathway is preferentially used by avirulent strains of T. gondii and confers an infectious advantage over virulent strains for macrophage tropism.virulence | Trojan horse | apicomplexa | phagocytes P hagocytosis is one of the most ancient defense mechanisms for the host to destroy invasive pathogens. However, most intracellular pathogens exploit this very pathway for internalization and survival in phagocytes (1). A notable exception to this paradigm is the infection pathway used by apicomplexan parasites-exemplified by Toxoplasma gondii. The current consensus model of T. gondii infection suggests that the parasite actively invades host cells by forming a moving junction (MJ) at the host cell surface (2). Penetration of T. gondii through this junction is largely driven by its own actin motor complex (3). The parasitophorous vacuoles formed by this pathway are nonfusogenic with the host endocytic system, thus evading lysosome-mediated destruction (4-6). However, recent reports including the findings that host F-actin participates in entry by T. gondii (7), and that the parasite is still able to infect cells, albeit much less efficiently, even without some key components of the invasion machinery (8), suggest the existence of alternative infection pathways for Toxoplasma. The active penetration model was defined largely by using nonphagocytic host cells and hypervirulent strains of the parasite. Unlike their virulent counterparts, the interaction of avirulent Toxoplasma strains with macrophage and dendritic cell results in heightened innate cytokine and chemokine production (9) and the development of a "hypermotile" host cellular phenotype (10), which promotes the control of acute infection and mediates dissemination into sites of parasite latency (11,12). Here, we investigated whether avirulent parasites interact with phagocytic host cells in a fundamentally different way from the outset. We found that the avirulent Toxoplasma strains infect macrophages initially via phagocytosis and subsequent active penetration from within the phagosome to form a parasitophorous vacuole. This hybrid invasion pathway may represent an intermediary link between the endocytic and the penetrative routes for host cell entry by intracellular pathogens. ResultsTo investigate whether avirulent Toxoplasma (PTG, type II strain) uses the active penetration p...

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Serotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in Cats (Felis domesticus) Reveals Predominance of Type II Infections in Germany

Cited by 21 publications

References 77 publications

Transcriptomic insights into the early host-pathogen interaction of cat intestine with Toxoplasma gondii

Transcriptomic insights into the early host-pathogen interaction of cat intestine with Toxoplasma gondii

Global miRNA expression profiling of domestic cat livers following acute Toxoplasma gondii infection

Avirulent strains of Toxoplasma gondii infect macrophages by active invasion from the phagosome

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