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Roles of the Formation of mRNA Stress Granules in the Viability of Extracellular Neospora caninum
Fu Yong, Su Ning, Liu Qun, Liu Jing*
College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China
Abstract: Neospora caninum is an obligate intracellular apicomplexan parasite. When searching for a new cell to invade after egress， the parasites are directly exposed to the stress of extracellular environment. So far， the mechanism of stress response outside the host cells of this parasite is still to be revealed. In this study， we used two different buffers that mimics the extracellular and intracellular environment respectively， to stimulate the newly egressed tachyzoites. Using RNA fish， we found that extracellular tachyzoites stimulated by intracellular buffer formed stronger mRNA granules. Lytic cycle assays were performed to evaluate the role of granules formation in maintaining the viability of extracellular N. caninum. The results demonstrated that mRNA granules formation leaded to a growth advantage， increased invasion and proliferation ability. Overall， mRNA granules formation improved the fitness of extracellular tachyzoites under stress conditions， contributed to the proliferation of newly-invaded tachyzoites， and enhanced the survival of N. caninum.
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