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

Abstract

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.

NF kappa B Regulator Bcl3 Controls Development and Function of Classical Dendritic Cells inToxoplasma gondiiInfection

“…Previous studies on host transcriptomics have revealed a general host-pathogen interaction in an in vitro T. gondii infection model [41] and in cat intestine [42]. To our knowledge, our study provides the first single cell transcriptomic investigation of dendritic cell Bcl3 in an experimental murine model of Toxoplasmosis.…”

Temporal transcriptomic changes in long non-coding RNAs and messenger RNAs involved in the host immune and metabolic response during Toxoplasma gondii lytic cycle

“…Previous studies using transcriptome sequencing detected many DEGs in T. gondii -infected animal models [ 31 – 33 ]. These DEGs were mainly involved in immune regulation.…”

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.…”