Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Ablation Of An Ovarian Tumor Family Deubiquitinase Exposes The Underlying Regulation Governing The Plasticity Of Cell Cycle Progression In Toxoplasma Gondii, Animesh Dhara, Rodrigo De Paula Baptista, Jessica C. Kissinger, Ernest Charles Snow, Anthony P. Sinai

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

The Toxoplasma genome encodes the capacity for distinct architectures underlying cell cycle progression in a life cycle stage-dependent manner. Replication in intermediate hosts occurs by endodyogeny, whereas a hybrid of schizogony and endopolygeny occurs in the gut of the definitive feline host. Here, we characterize the consequence of the loss of a cell cycle-regulated ovarian tumor (OTU family) deubiquitinase, OTUD3A of Toxoplasma gondii (TgOTUD3A; TGGT1_258780), in T. gondii tachyzoites. Rather than the mutation being detrimental, mutant parasites exhibited a fitness advantage, outcompeting the wild type. This phenotype was due to roughly one-third of TgOTUD3A-knockout (TgOTUD3A-KO) tachyzoites exhibiting deviations from endodyogeny …