Transcriptional changes in the hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum, during the transition from a free-living to a parasitic larva
Datu, Bennett J.D., Gasser, Robin, Nagaraj, Shivashankar H., Ong, Eng K., O'Donoghue, Peter, McInnes, Russell, Ranganathan, Shoba, and Loukas, Alex (2008) Transcriptional changes in the hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum, during the transition from a free-living to a parasitic larva. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2 (1). e130. pp. 1-15.
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Abstract
Background: Third-stage larvae (L3) of the canine hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum, undergo arrested development preceding transmission to a host. Many of the mRNAs up-regulated at this stage are likely to encode proteins that facilitate the transition from a free-living to a parasitic larva. The initial phase of mammalian host invasion by A. caninum L3 (herein termed "activation") can be mimicked in vitro by culturing L3 in serum-containing medium.
Methodology/Principal Findings: The mRNAs differentially transcribed between activated and non-activated L3 were identified by suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH). The analysis of these mRNAs on a custom oligonucleotide microarray printed with the SSH expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and publicly available A. caninum ESTs (non-subtracted) yielded 602 differentially expressed mRNAs, of which the most highly represented sequences encoded members of the pathogenesis-related protein (PRP) superfamily and proteases. Comparison of these A. caninum mRNAs with those of Caenorhabditis elegans larvae exiting from developmental (dauer) arrest demonstrated unexpectedly large differences in gene ontology profiles. C. elegans dauer exiting L3 up-regulated expression of mostly intracellular molecules involved in growth and development. Such mRNAs are virtually absent from activated hookworm larvae, and instead are over-represented by mRNAs encoding extracellular proteins with putative roles in host-parasite interactions.
Conclusions/Significance: Although this should not invalidate C. elegans dauer exit as a model for hookworm activation, it highlights the limitations of this free-living nematode as a model organism for the transition of nematode larvae from a free-living to a parasitic state.
| Item ID: | 36737 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1935-2735 |
| Additional Information: | © 2008 Datu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Funders: | Australian Research Council (ARC) |
| Projects and Grants: | ARC grant DP0665230, ARC grant LP0667795 |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Dec 2014 03:18 |
| FoR Codes: | 11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1108 Medical Microbiology > 110803 Medical Parasitology @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 92 HEALTH > 9201 Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) > 920109 Infectious Diseases @ 100% |
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