title: Comparative characterization of microRNA profiles of different genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii.
abstract: The present study compared the miRNA expression profiles of five Toxoplasma gondii strains, namely RH (Type I, ToxoDB10), TgXD (Type I, ToxoDB10), PRU (Type II, ToxoDB1), QHO (Type II, ToxoDB1) and TgC7 (ToxoDB9), by Solexa deep sequencing, bioinformatics analysis and real-time quantitative PCR. A total of 7, 15, 10, 12 and 10 miRNAs were found from RH, TgXD, PRU, QHO and TgC7 strains, respectively. Thirteen miRNAs were shared by three genotypes, with only one miRNA shared by all of the 5 strains and others shared by 2 or more strains. A large number of targets ranging from 1 to 185 were identified for commonly shared miRNAs and strain-specific miRNAs with complete or nearly complete complementarity. Functional prediction showed that these targets were mostly focused on catalytic activity (191 targets) and binding activity (183 targets). Nonetheless, the majority of targets and most of the miRNAs are related to the virulence or invasion proteins of different strains of T. gondii, including ROP and MIC, as well as some other proteins, such as AMA1, GRA and RHO. The present study characterized comparatively the miRNA profiles of 3 different genotypes of T. gondii, identified genotype-shared miRNAs and strain-specific miRNAs.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730046, PR China.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: F R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Nisbet
authors.forename: R Q
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: H Q
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: X Q
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D005838:Genotype; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014124:Toxoplasmosis, Animal / Q000469:parasitology*; D059467:Transcriptome; D037521:Virulence Factors
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D016053:RNA, Protozoan; D037521:Virulence Factors