학술논문
Acanthamoeba healyi: Expressed gene profiles with enhanced virulence after mouse-brain passage
Document Type
Report
Author
Source
Experimental Parasitology. Nov, 2009, Vol. 123 Issue 3, p226, 5 p.
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
0014-4894
Abstract
To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.exppara.2009.07.012 Byline: Ying-Hua Xuan (a), Yeon-Chul Hong (a), Yong-Seok Lee (b), Se-Won Kang (b), Hak-Sun Yu (c), Tae-In Ahn (d), Dong-Il Chung (a), Hyun-Hee Kong (a) Keywords: Acanthamoeba; Mouse-brain passage; ESTs Abstract: The virulence of Acanthamoeba can be attenuated by long-term in vitro cultivation, and can be recovered by serial mouse-brain passage via intranasal inoculation. Recovery is concomitant with changes in expression of virulence-related genes. To investigate the virulence factors of Acanthamoeba, expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from two kinds of cDNA libraries -- long-term in vitro cultivated A. healyi (OLD) and three times mouse-brain passaged A. healyi (MBP) -- were compared using reciprocal BLAST analysis, eukaryotic orthologous groups (KOG) assignment, and gene annotation. A total of 938 (OLD) and 1033 (MBP) ESTs were sequenced and resulted in the assembling of 718 OLD and 833 MBP unique sequences. Comparison of the KOG analysis revealed a relatively higher percentage of MBP ESTs in genes related to transcription (K group), amino acid transport and metabolism (E group), coenzyme transport and metabolism (H group), and secondary metabolites biosynthesis, transport and metabolism (Q group). However, a higher percentage of unidentified MBP ESTs (57.9%) than OLD ESTs (28.9%) was evidence of the limited understanding of virulence-related factors of Acanthamoeba. Characterization of the genes expressed during brain passage in mice will be useful in clarifying the pathogenesis of granulomatous amoebic encephalitis by Acanthamoeba. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Parasitology, Kyungpook National University, School of Medicine, Taegu 700-422, Republic of Korea (b) Department of Parasitology, College of Medicine and Frontier Inje Research for Science and Technology, Inje University, Pusan 614-735, Republic of Korea (c) Department of Parasitology, Pusan National University, School of Medicine, Pusan 602-739, Republic of Korea (d) Department of Biological Science, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea Article History: Received 6 August 2008; Revised 26 December 2008; Accepted 21 July 2009