Transcriptome profile of halofuginone resistant and sensitive strains of Eimeria tenella

Pei Sun; Chaoyue Wang; Yuanyuan Zhang; Xinming Tang; Dandan Hu; Fujie Xie; Zhenkai Hao; Jingxia Suo; Yonglan Yu; Xun Suo; Xianyong Liu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1141952

Transcriptome profile of halofuginone resistant and sensitive strains of Eimeria tenella

Front Microbiol. 2023 Mar 30:14:1141952. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1141952. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Pei Sun¹, Chaoyue Wang², Yuanyuan Zhang³, Xinming Tang⁴, Dandan Hu⁵, Fujie Xie¹, Zhenkai Hao¹, Jingxia Suo¹, Yonglan Yu⁶, Xun Suo¹, Xianyong Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology and Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory and College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
² Department of Pathogen Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Beijing Key Laboratory of Animal Genetic Improvement, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁵ School of Animal Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
⁶ Department of Clinic Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

The antiparasitic drug halofuginone is important for controlling apicomplexan parasites. However, the occurrence of halofuginone resistance is a major obstacle for it to the treatment of apicomplexan parasites. Current studies have identified the molecular marker and drug resistance mechanisms of halofuginone in Plasmodium falciparum. In this study, we tried to use transcriptomic data to explore resistance mechanisms of halofuginone in apicomplexan parasites of the genus Eimeria (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae). After halofuginone treatment of E. tenella parasites, transcriptome analysis was performed using samples derived from both resistant and sensitive strains. In the sensitive group, DEGs associated with enzymes were significantly downregulated, whereas the DNA damaging process was upregulated after halofuginone treatment, revealing the mechanism of halofuginone-induced parasite death. In addition, 1,325 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected between halofuginone resistant and sensitive strains, and the DEGs related to translation were significantly downregulated after halofuginone induction. Overall, our results provide a gene expression profile for further studies on the mechanism of halofuginone resistance in E. tenella.

Keywords: DEG; Eimeria tenella; halofuginone; resistance; transcriptome analysis.