Unveiling of brain transcriptome of masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) with chronic infection of Toxoplasma gondii

Abstract

Background The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the transcriptomic changes that occur in a wild species when infected with Toxoplasma gondii. The masked palm civet, an artifically domesticated animal, was used as the model of a wild species. Transcriptome analysis was used to study alterations in gene expression in the domesticated masked palm civet after chronic infection with T. gondii. Methods Masked palm civets were infected with 105 T. gondii cysts and their brain tissue collected after 4 months of infection. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) was used to gain insight into the spectrum of genes that were differentially expressed due to infection. Quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) was also used to validate the level of expression of a set of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) obtained by sequencing. Results DEGs were screened from the sequencing results and analyzed. A total of 2808 DEGs were detected, of which 860 were upregulated and 1948 were downregulated. RNA-Seq results were confirmed by qRT-PCR. DEGs were mainly enriched in cellular process and metabolic process based on gene ontology enrichment analysis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis showed that transcriptional changes in the brain of infected masked palm civets evolved over the course of infection and that DEGs were mainly enriched in the signal transduction, immune system processes, transport and catabolic pathways. Finally, 10 essential driving genes were identified from the immune signaling pathway. Conclusions This study revealed novel host genes which may provide target genes for the development of new therapeutics and detection methods for T. gondii infection in wild animals. Graphical Abstract

Transcriptome analysis of a newly established mouse model of Toxoplasma gondii pneumonia

“…The innate immune, inflammatory signaling, cytokine-mediated signaling, and chemokine signaling pathways were the major immune pathways with high gene enrichment. These results are similar to T. gondii infection of the brain [ 18 , 20 ]. Transcriptome analysis of mouse lungs infected with T. gondii helped to understand the mechanism of the host immune system in Toxoplasma pneumonia.…”

Multiomics and bioinformatics identify differentially expressed effectors in the brain of Toxoplasma gondii infected masked palm civet

“…We evaluated the mRNA levels of DEPs using a combined proteomic and transcriptomic approach. The transcriptome data is previously published and available on NCBI (NCBI accession no: PRJNA760987) ( Yuan et al., 2022 ).…”

“…In our previous study, we took the brain tissues of T. gondii infected masked palm civets and conducted transcriptomic studies ( Yuan et al., 2022 ). We identified differentially expressed genes (e.g., CCL28, CCL23, TLR1, TLR4, CCL5, CASP8) that were enriched in immune regulatory pathways, including chemokine signaling pathway, TLR signaling pathway, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway.…”

An Overview of Bioinformatics and its Application: A Ray of Hope towards Microbial Biotechnology

“…Many signaling pathways in the yeast-based system have been found using this cluster analysis. The analysis is a versatile method that works with both eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems (139)(140)(141)(142). The transient temporal behavior of numerous genes participating in the regulation and auto-regulatory mechanisms of operons, a co-transcribed gene-group inside a pathway involved in a common functionality, cannot be explained, not even by determining connection.…”