CHINESE JOURNAL OF PARASITOLOGY AND PARASITIC DISEASES ›› 2021, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (4): 480-486.doi: 10.12140/j.issn.1000-7423.2021.04.010

• ORIGINAL ARTICLES • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Comparative analysis of transcriptomes in Toxoplasma gondii before and after invasion in human foreskin fibroblasts

WANG Long-jiang(), LI Jin, YIN Kun, XU Chao, LIU Gong-zhen, HUANG Bing-cheng, WEI Qing-kuan, SUN Hui*()   

  1. Shandong Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jining 272033, China
  • Received:2020-12-08 Revised:2021-02-23 Online:2021-08-30 Published:2021-08-06
  • Contact: SUN Hui E-mail:ljw880108@163.com;sunhui123aq@126.com
  • Supported by:
    Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province(2019GSF107054);National Natural Science Foundation of China(81501770);Projects of Medical and Health Technology Development Program in Shandong Province(2018WSA303);Projects of Medical and Health Technology Development Program in Shandong Province(2017WS103);Project of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences(2018-26);Academic Promotion Programme of Shandong First Medical University(2019QL005)

Abstract:

Objective To investigate transcriptome changes in Toxoplasma gondii before and after invasion in human foreskin fibroblasts (HFF) by RNA-seq. Methods Tachyzoites of T. gondii RH strain were added to monolayered HFF cells at a parasite-cell infection ratio of 3 : 1 and incubated at 37 ℃ with 5% CO2 for 24 h. Following the incubation, the cells (infection group) were harvested and RNA extracted, using tachyzoites of RH strain as a blank control (control group). The mRNA was purified for high-throughput sequencing using the BGISEQ-500 platform. The eligible sequence data obtained were aligned with T. gondii genome data (GCF_000006565.2_TGA4_ncbi) in NCBI database. Differentially expressed genes (2.0-fold change with a P-value of < 0.05 in the infection group in comparison with the control group) were selected for Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment and protein interaction network analysis. Results A total of 5 888 genes were detected, 986 differentially expressed genes were identified, in which 533 upregulated and 453 downregulated. GO analysis showed that the GO items significantly enriched were membrane, integral component of membrane, intrinsic component of membrane, and membrane part. KEGG enrichment pathways mainly involving gastric cancer, fatty acid biosynthesis, and calcium signaling pathway. In protein-protein interaction network analysis, the top six interacting proteins were TGME49_282200, TGME49_305980 (PDHE3I), TGME49_316310 (SOD), TGME49_310440 (MORN1), TGME49_237110 and TGME49_222020 (PGKII). Conclusion There are significant differences in transcriptome in T. gondii before and after invasion in HFF cells. The KEGG enrichment pathways mainly involve gastric cancer, fatty acid biosynthesis, and calcium signaling pathway, and six top genes with regard to the number of interaction proteins are screened.

Key words: Toxoplasma gondii, Transcriptome, Differentially expressed gene

CLC Number: