Toxoplasma secreting Cre recombinase for analysis of host-parasite interactions

Nat Methods. 2010 Mar 7. [Epub ahead of print]

Toxoplasma secreting Cre recombinase for analysis of host-parasite interactions

Koshy AA, Fouts AE, Lodoen MB, Alkan O, Blau HM, Boothroyd JC.

[1] Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA. [2] Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.

We describe a Toxoplasma gondii strain that will permit the use of site-specific recombination to study the host-parasite interactions of this organism. This Toxoplasma strain efficiently injects a Cre fusion protein into host cells. In a Cre-reporter cell line, a single parasite invasion induced Cre-mediated recombination in 95% of infected host cells. By infecting Cre-reporter mice with these parasites, we also monitored host-cell infection in vivo.

PMID: 20208532 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]