Keystone Symposia 2008 Conference Schedule Sign up for PNAS Online eTocs
Link: Info for AuthorsLink: Editorial BoardLink: AboutLink: SubscribeLink: AdvertiseLink: ContactLink: Sitemap Link: PNAS Home
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Link: Current Issue "" Link: Archives "" Link: Online Submission ""  Link: Advanced Search

Published online on June 26, 2006, 10.1073/pnas.0510319103
PNAS | July 5, 2006 | vol. 103 | no. 27 | 10514-10519


This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supporting Information
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a colleague
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Copyright Permission
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (7)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Boyle, J. P.
Right arrow Articles by Boothroyd, J. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Boyle, J. P.
Right arrow Articles by Boothroyd, J. C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg  
What's this?

 Previous Article  | Table of Contents |  Next Article 

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / POPULATION BIOLOGY
Just one cross appears capable of dramatically altering the population biology of a eukaryotic pathogen like Toxoplasma gondii

Jon P. Boyle*, Badri Rajasekar*, Jeroen P. J. Saeij*, James W. Ajioka{dagger}, Matthew Berriman{ddagger}, Ian Paulsen§, David S. Roos, L. David Sibley||, Michael W. White**, and John C. Boothroyd*,{dagger}{dagger}

*Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305; {dagger}Department of Pathology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 1QP, United Kingdom; {ddagger}Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton CB10 1SA, United Kingdom; §Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, MD 20850; Department of Biology and Penn Genomics Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104; ||Department of Molecular Microbiology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110; and **Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717

Edited by Louis H. Miller, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, and approved May 24, 2006 (received for review November 29, 2005)

Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate intracellular protozoan of the phylum Apicomplexa, is estimated to infect over a billion people worldwide as well as a great many other mammalian and avian hosts. Despite this ubiquity, the vast majority of human infections in Europe and North America are thought to be due to only three genotypes. Using a genome-wide analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, we have constructed a genealogy for these three lines. The data indicate that types I and III are second- and first-generation offspring, respectively, of a cross between a type II strain and one of two ancestral strains. An extant T. gondii strain (P89) appears to be the modern descendant of the non-type II parent of type III, making the full genealogy of the type III clonotype known. The simplicity of this family tree demonstrates that even a single cross can lead to the emergence and dominance of a new clonal genotype that completely alters the population biology of a sexual pathogen.

clonal population structure | genetic recombination | virulence

Author contributions: J.P.B. and J.C.B. designed research; J.P.B. and B.R. performed research; J.P.B., B.R., J.P.J.S., J.W.A., M.B., I.P., D.S.R., L.D.S., and M.W.W. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.P.B., B.R., J.P.J.S., and J.C.B. analyzed data; and J.P.B. and J.C.B. wrote the paper.

Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.

This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.

Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. DQ676958–DQ676977 and DQ768301–DQ768304).

{dagger}{dagger}To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: john.boothroyd{at}stanford.edu

© 2006 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles in HighWire Press-hosted journals:


Home page
 Infect. Immun.Home page
C. W. Lee, W. Sukhumavasi, and E. Y. Denkers
Phosphoinositide-3-Kinase-Dependent, MyD88-Independent Induction of CC-Type Chemokines Characterizes the Macrophage Response to Toxoplasma gondii Strains with High Virulence
Infect. Immun., December 1, 2007; 75(12): 5788 - 5797.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
A. Khan, B. Fux, C. Su, J. P. Dubey, M. L. Darde, J. W. Ajioka, B. M. Rosenthal, and L. D. Sibley
Recent transcontinental sweep of Toxoplasma gondii driven by a single monomorphic chromosome
PNAS, September 11, 2007; 104(37): 14872 - 14877.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
J. Lukes, I. L. Mauricio, G. Schonian, J.-C. Dujardin, K. Soteriadou, J.-P. Dedet, K. Kuhls, K. W. Q. Tintaya, M. Jirku, E. Chocholova, et al.
Evolutionary and geographical history of the Leishmania donovani complex with a revision of current taxonomy
PNAS, May 29, 2007; 104(22): 9375 - 9380.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Immunol.Home page
S.-K. Kim, A. E. Fouts, and J. C. Boothroyd
Toxoplasma gondii Dysregulates IFN-{gamma}-Inducible Gene Expression in Human Fibroblasts: Insights from a Genome-Wide Transcriptional Profiling
J. Immunol., April 15, 2007; 178(8): 5154 - 5165.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 ScienceHome page
J. P. J. Saeij, J. P. Boyle, S. Coller, S. Taylor, L. D. Sibley, E. T. Brooke-Powell, J. W. Ajioka, and J. C. Boothroyd
Polymorphic Secreted Kinases Are Key Virulence Factors in Toxoplasmosis
Science, December 15, 2006; 314(5806): 1780 - 1783.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Genome Res.Home page
A. Khan, U. Bohme, K. A. Kelly, E. Adlem, K. Brooks, M. Simmonds, K. Mungall, M. A. Quail, C. Arrowsmith, T. Chillingworth, et al.
Common inheritance of chromosome Ia associated with clonal expansion of Toxoplasma gondii
Genome Res., September 1, 2006; 16(9): 1119 - 1125.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]