10.5061/DRYAD.J3TX95X9C
Hartigan, Ashlie
0000-0001-6510-2428
Institute of Parasitology
Kosakyan, Anush
Institute of Parasitology
Pecková, Hana
Institute of Parasitology
Eszterbauer, Edit
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Holzer, Astrid
0000-0002-4916-3172
Institute of Parasitology
Sphaerospora molnari (Myxozoa) SMBS transcriptome data
Dryad
dataset
2020
Sphaerospora
Myxozoa
Myxosporea
host-parasite
European Commission Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action*
634429
Czech Science Foundation
https://ror.org/01pv73b02
19-28399X
Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office*
NN124220
European Commission Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action
634429
Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office
NN124220
2020-12-03T00:00:00Z
2020-12-03T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-020-6705-y
126104971 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Parasites employ proteases to evade host immune systems, feed and
replicate and are often the target of anti-parasite strategies to disrupt
these interactions. Myxozoans are obligate cnidarian parasites,
alternating between invertebrate and fish hosts. They are highly divergent
from other metazoans with regard to their gene sequences, and available
genomic and transcriptomic datasets are limited. Some myxozoans are
important aquaculture pathogens such as Sphaerospora molnari replicating
in the blood of farmed carp before reaching the gills for sporogenesis and
transmission. Proliferative stages cause a massive systemic lymphocyte
response and the disruption of the gill epithelia by spore-forming stages
leads to respiratory problems and mortalities. In the absence of a S.
molnari genome, we utilized a de novo approach to assemble the first
transcriptome of proliferative myxozoan stages to identify S. molnari
proteases that are upregulated during the first stages of infection when
the parasite multiplies massively, rather than in late spore-forming
plasmodia. Furthermore, a subset of orthologs was used to characterize 3D
structures and putative druggable targets. An assembled and host filtered
transcriptome containing 9436 proteins, mapping to 29 560 contigs was
mined for protease virulence factors and revealed that cysteine proteases
were most common (38%), at a higher percentage than other myxozoans or
cnidarians (25-30%). Two cathepsin Ls that were found upregulated in
spore-forming stages with a presenilin like aspartic protease and a
dipeptidyl peptidase. We also identified downregulated proteases in the
spore-forming development when compared with proliferative stages
including an astacin metallopeptidase and lipases (qPCR). In total, 235
transcripts were identified as putative proteases using a MEROPS
database. In silico analysis of highly transcribed cathepsins revealed
potential drug targets within this data set that should be prioritised for
development. In silico surveys for proteins are essential in drug
discovery and understanding host-parasite interactions in non-model
systems. The present study of S. molnari’s protease arsenal reveals
previously unknown proteases potentially used for host exploitation and
immune evasion. The pioneering dataset serves as a model for myxozoan
virulence research, which is of particular importance as myxozoan diseases
have recently been shown to emerge and expand geographically, due to
climate change.
Illumina Hi Seq, Host and parasite filtered based on reads and assembled
transcripts.