Differential Expression of Three Cryptosporidium Species-Specific MEDLE Proteins

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 10; p. 1177
• Main Authors: Su, Jiayuan, Jin, Chanchan, Wu, Haizhen, Fei, Jilan, Li, Na, Guo, Yaqiong, Feng, Yaoyu, Xiao, Lihua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 29-05-2019
• Subjects: Cryptosporidium hominis; Cryptosporidium parvum; growth; invasion; MEDLE family; Microbiology; Cryptosporidium hominis; MEDLE family; growth; Cryptosporidium parvum; invasion
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01177

and
share highly similar proteomes, with merely ~3% divergence in overall nucleotide sequences.
-specific MEDLE family is one of the major differences in gene content between the two species. Comparative genomic analysis indicated that MEDLE family may contribute to differences in host range among
spp. Previous studies have suggested that CpMEDLE-1 encoded by
and CpMEDLE-2 encoded by
are potentially involved in the invasion of
. In this study, we expressed in
the
-specific member of the MEDLE protein family, ChMEDLE-1 encoded by
and two
-specific members, CpMEDLE-3 encoded by
and CpMEDLE-5 encoded by
. Quantitative PCR, immunofluorescence staining and
neutralization assay were conducted to assess their biologic characteristics. The expression of the
gene was high during 12-48 h of the
culture, while the expression of
was the highest at 2 h. ChMEDLE-1 and CpMEDLE-3 proteins were mostly located in the anterior and mid-anterior region of sporozoites and merozoites, whereas CpMEDLE-5 was expressed over the entire surface of these invasive stages. Polyclonal antibodies against MEDLE proteins had different neutralization efficiency, reaching approximately 50% for ChMEDLE-1 and 60% for CpMEDLE-3, but only 20% for CpMEDLE-5. The differences in protein and gene expression and neutralizing capacity indicated the MEDLE proteins may have different roles during
invasion and growth.