Acute and persistent infection by a transfected Mo7 strain of Babesia bovis.
A Mo7-derived Babesia bovis line stably transfected with the gfp-bsd gene was inoculated into two four to five months old calves, while two additional calves were inoculated with Mo7 parasites. Similar mild clinical signs were detected in all calves. B. bovis rap-1 was identified in the bloodstream by PCR four days post inoculation (dpi), and consistently over ten months thereafter. Transfusion of blood from experimentally infected calves into four naïve splenectomized calves at 212 dpi resulted in acute disease in recipients, confirming persistent infection in the four donor animals. The proportion of GFP expressing parasites recovered from a splenectomized recipient calf is undistinguishable from transfected parasites that were maintained in long term culture under blasticidin selection. Furthermore, the sequences of transfected genes in recovered parasites remained unaltered. Together, the data demonstrates that exogenous B. bovis transgenes can be expressed and remain stable throughout acute and persistent infection in calves.
Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-704, United States. ces@vetmed.wsu.edu
Carlos E
CE
Suarez
Jacob M
JM
Laughery
David A
DA
Schneider
Kerry S
KS
Sondgeroth
Terry F
TF
McElwain
D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D016793:Babesia bovis / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000097:blood; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017125:Genes, Protozoan; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000469:parasitology; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000097:blood; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014162:Transfection; D019076:Transgenes
D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C097551:rhoptry-associated protein-1, Babesia; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins