The merozoite-specific protein, TgGRA11B, identified as a component of the Toxoplasma gondii parasitophorous vacuole in a tachyzoite expression model

Int J Parasitol. 2017 May 16. pii: S0020-7519(17)30130-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2017.04.001. [Epub ahead of print]

Ramakrishnan C¹, Walker RA², Eichenberger RM², Hehl AB², Smith NC³.

The apicomplexan, Toxoplasma gondii, infects all warm-blooded animals as intermediate hosts but only felids as definitive hosts. Dense granule proteins are critical for the survival of Toxoplasma within host cells but, whilst these proteins have been studied intensively in tachyzoites, little is known about their expression in the coccidian stages in the cat intestine. Transcriptomic profiling indicates that two putative dense granule proteins, TgGRA11A and TgGRA11B, are expressed uniquely in merozoites. Immunofluorescent microscopy of Toxoplasma-infected cat intestine and tachyzoites engineered to express TgGRA11B, reveals that it is a dense granule protein that traffics into the parasitophorous vacuole and its membrane.

Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

KEYWORDS:

Coccidia; Dense granule; Merozoite; Parasitophorous vacuole; TgGRA11B; Toxoplasma gondii

PMID:

28526607

DOI:

10.1016/j.ijpara.2017.04.001