Book Description
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate, intracellular parasite of the Apicomplexan phylum that is able to infect nearly all warm-blooded vertebrates. This capability for survival in a variety of host niches is reflected in the diversification of Toxoplasma strains. Strains differ dramatically in their interaction with hosts, and a fruitful approach towards understanding the molecular underpinnings of disease has been to identify and characterize drivers of strain-specific differences in host response. Chapter 1 provides a general introduction to Toxoplasma gondii and its ability to modulate host immunity, with special attention given to what is known about the mechanisms behind strain-specific phenotypes and the role of one particular player, ROP16. Chapter 2 describes experiments demonstrating that Toxoplasma secretes a polymorphic tyrosine kinase, ROP16, that can directly phosphorylate host STAT6. These experiments made use of a targeted disruption of the ROP16 locus in Type I parasites to identify ROP16-dependent signaling pathways, and used biochemical approaches to dissect the mechanism by which ROP16 is able to induce rapid STAT6 activation. Chapter 3 describes work demonstrating that ROP16 activation of STAT6 directs murine macrophage polarization towards an alternatively activated (M2) phenotype. In Chapter 4, the avian host response to Toxoplasma is examined to determine whether strain-specific differences in host response might be inverted in non-mammalian hosts. We show that strain-specific transcriptional host response, as well as transcriptional host response modulated by ROP16, appears very similar in chickens as in mice and humans. This suggests that variance between mammalian and avian host species in general may not be the source of selective pressure for the success of these common strains, or of ROP16's variability. Chapter 5 concludes with a discussion of future directions for further characterization of ROP16's role in modulating host response. We show that ROP16 interacts with host chromatin and suggest that investigation of ROP16's function in the host nucleus might yield further molecular insights as to how Toxoplasma is able to co-opt host cells and influence the course of infection.
