iTRAQ-Based Phosphoproteomic Analysis Exposes Molecular Changes in the Small Intestinal Epithelia of Cats after <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> Infection
2023
Bintao Zhai | Yu-Meng Meng | Shi-Chen Xie | Jun-Jie Peng | Yang Liu | Yanhua Qiu | Lu Wang | Jiyu Zhang | Jun-Jun He
<i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>, an obligate intracellular parasite, has the ability to invade and proliferate within most nucleated cells. The invasion and destruction of host cells by <i>T. gondii</i> lead to significant changes in the cellular signal transduction network. One important post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins is phosphorylation/dephosphorylation, which plays a crucial role in cell signal transmission. In this study, we aimed to investigate how <i>T. gondii</i> regulates signal transduction in definitive host cells. We employed titanium dioxide (TiO<sub>2</sub>) affinity chromatography to enrich phosphopeptides in the small intestinal epithelia of cats at 10 days post-infection with the <i>T. gondii</i> Prugniuad (Pru) strain and quantified them using iTRAQ technology. A total of 4998 phosphopeptides, 3497 phosphorylation sites, and 1805 phosphoproteins were identified. Among the 705 differentially expressed phosphoproteins (DEPs), 68 were down-regulated and 637 were up-regulated. The bioinformatics analysis revealed that the DE phosphoproteins were involved in various cellular processes, including actin cytoskeleton reorganization, cell necroptosis, and MHC immune processes. Our findings confirm that <i>T. gondii</i> infection leads to extensive changes in the phosphorylation of proteins in the cat intestinal epithelial cells. The results of this study provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the interaction between <i>T. gondii</i> and its definitive host.
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