Atypical virulence in a type III Toxoplasma gondii strain isolated in Japan

作者：Taniguchi Yuji; Appiah Kwarteng Cornelia; Murakami Mami; Fukumoto Junpei; Nagamune Kisaburo; Matsuo Tomohide; Masatani Tatsunori; Kanuka Hirotaka; Hoshina Tokio; Kitoh Katsuya; Takashima Yasuhiro^*

来源：Parasitology International, 2018, 67(5): 587-592.

DOI：10.1016/j.parint.2018.05.010

• Toxoplasma gondii
• Virulence
• Atypical virulence
• Genotype
• Rhoptry protein

The virulence of a type III Toxoplasma gondii strain isolated in Japan and designated here as TgCatJpGil/TaJ was examined in mice and micro minipigs in this study. Despite its type III genotype, oral or intraperitoneal inoculation of cysts from it resulted in severe virulence in C57BL/6J and BALB/c mice. In contrast, mice inoculated with a high dose of TgCatJpGil/TaJ tachyzoites showed no obvious clinical signs of infection, and all of them survived for > 21 days post-inoculation. Furthermore, no clinical signs of infection were seen when micro minipigs were inoculated with 900 cysts. Interestingly, our allelic type screening of the virulence-related ropy, rop16, rop17, and rop18 genes, as based on restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP), revealed that the RFLP patterns for TgCatJpGil/TaJ were identical to those from nonvirulent type III parasites. These results suggest that TgCatJpGil/TaJ possesses an unknown virulence factor or factors.

• 出版日期2018-10