Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus.
Adult schistosomes have a well-developed alimentary tract comprising an oral sucker around the mouth, a short esophagus and a blind ending gut. The esophagus is not simply a muscular tube for conducting blood from the mouth to gut but is divided into compartments, surrounded by anterior and posterio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2018-02-01
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| Series: | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5825161?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818150958637514752 |
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| author | Xiao-Hong Li Ricardo DeMarco Leandro X Neves Sally R James Katherine Newling Peter D Ashton Jian-Ping Cao R Alan Wilson William Castro-Borges |
| author_facet | Xiao-Hong Li Ricardo DeMarco Leandro X Neves Sally R James Katherine Newling Peter D Ashton Jian-Ping Cao R Alan Wilson William Castro-Borges |
| author_sort | Xiao-Hong Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Adult schistosomes have a well-developed alimentary tract comprising an oral sucker around the mouth, a short esophagus and a blind ending gut. The esophagus is not simply a muscular tube for conducting blood from the mouth to gut but is divided into compartments, surrounded by anterior and posterior glands, where processing of ingested blood is initiated. Self-cure of rhesus macaques from a Schistosoma japonicum infection appears to operate by blocking the secretory functions of these glands so that the worms cease feeding and slowly starve to death. Here we use subtractive RNASeq to characterise the genes encoding the principal secretory products of S. japonicum esophageal glands, preparatory to evaluating their relevance as targets of the self-cure process.The heads and a small portion of the rear end of male and female S. japonicum worms were separately enriched by microdissection, for mRNA isolation and library construction. The sequence reads were then assembled de novo using Trinity and those genes enriched more than eightfold in the head preparation were subjected to detailed bioinformatics analysis. Of the 62 genes selected from the male heads, more than one third comprised MEGs encoding secreted or membrane-anchored proteins. Database searching using conserved motifs revealed that the MEG-4 and MEG-8/9 families had counterparts in the bird schistosome Trichobilharzia regenti, indicating an ancient association with blood processing. A second group of MEGs, including a MEG-26 family, encoded short peptides with amphipathic properties that most likely interact with ingested host cell membranes to destabilise them. A number of lysosomal hydrolases, two protease inhibitors, a secreted VAL and a putative natterin complete the line-up. There was surprisingly little difference between expression patterns in males and females despite the latter processing much more blood.The mixture of approximately 40 proteins specifically secreted by the esophageal glands is responsible for initiating blood processing in the adult worm esophagus. They comprise the potential targets for the self-cure process in the rhesus macaque, and thus represent a completely new cohort of secreted proteins that can be investigated as vaccine candidates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T13:31:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-64e967875b9d4da1998d8229562e13ff |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1935-2727 1935-2735 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T13:31:12Z |
| publishDate | 2018-02-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| spelling | doaj.art-64e967875b9d4da1998d8229562e13ff2022-12-22T01:05:16ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases1935-27271935-27352018-02-01122e000623510.1371/journal.pntd.0006235Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus.Xiao-Hong LiRicardo DeMarcoLeandro X NevesSally R JamesKatherine NewlingPeter D AshtonJian-Ping CaoR Alan WilsonWilliam Castro-BorgesAdult schistosomes have a well-developed alimentary tract comprising an oral sucker around the mouth, a short esophagus and a blind ending gut. The esophagus is not simply a muscular tube for conducting blood from the mouth to gut but is divided into compartments, surrounded by anterior and posterior glands, where processing of ingested blood is initiated. Self-cure of rhesus macaques from a Schistosoma japonicum infection appears to operate by blocking the secretory functions of these glands so that the worms cease feeding and slowly starve to death. Here we use subtractive RNASeq to characterise the genes encoding the principal secretory products of S. japonicum esophageal glands, preparatory to evaluating their relevance as targets of the self-cure process.The heads and a small portion of the rear end of male and female S. japonicum worms were separately enriched by microdissection, for mRNA isolation and library construction. The sequence reads were then assembled de novo using Trinity and those genes enriched more than eightfold in the head preparation were subjected to detailed bioinformatics analysis. Of the 62 genes selected from the male heads, more than one third comprised MEGs encoding secreted or membrane-anchored proteins. Database searching using conserved motifs revealed that the MEG-4 and MEG-8/9 families had counterparts in the bird schistosome Trichobilharzia regenti, indicating an ancient association with blood processing. A second group of MEGs, including a MEG-26 family, encoded short peptides with amphipathic properties that most likely interact with ingested host cell membranes to destabilise them. A number of lysosomal hydrolases, two protease inhibitors, a secreted VAL and a putative natterin complete the line-up. There was surprisingly little difference between expression patterns in males and females despite the latter processing much more blood.The mixture of approximately 40 proteins specifically secreted by the esophageal glands is responsible for initiating blood processing in the adult worm esophagus. They comprise the potential targets for the self-cure process in the rhesus macaque, and thus represent a completely new cohort of secreted proteins that can be investigated as vaccine candidates.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5825161?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Xiao-Hong Li Ricardo DeMarco Leandro X Neves Sally R James Katherine Newling Peter D Ashton Jian-Ping Cao R Alan Wilson William Castro-Borges Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| title | Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus. |
| title_full | Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus. |
| title_fullStr | Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus. |
| title_short | Microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the Schistosoma japonicum esophagus. |
| title_sort | microexon gene transcriptional profiles and evolution provide insights into blood processing by the schistosoma japonicum esophagus |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5825161?pdf=render |
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