1. Stable transformation of Babesia bigemina and Babesia bovis using a single transfection plasmid.
- Author
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Silva MG, Knowles DP, Mazuz ML, Cooke BM, and Suarez CE
- Subjects
- Animals, Cattle parasitology, Electroporation methods, Green Fluorescent Proteins genetics, Homologous Recombination, Peptide Elongation Factor 1 genetics, Plasmids genetics, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Protozoan Proteins genetics, Recombinant Fusion Proteins genetics, Transformation, Genetic, Babesia genetics, Babesia bovis genetics, Babesiosis parasitology, Cattle Diseases parasitology, Transfection methods
- Abstract
Babesia bigemina and Babesia bovis, are the two major causes of bovine babesiosis, a global neglected disease in need of improved methods of control. Here, we describe a shared method for the stable transfection of these two parasites using electroporation and blasticidin/blasticidin deaminase as a selectable marker. Stably transfected B. bigemina and B. bovis were obtained using a common transfection plasmid targeting the enhanced green fluorescent protein-BSD (egfp-bsd) fusion gene into the elongation factor-1α (ef-1α) locus of B. bigemina and B. bovis under the control of the B. bigemina ef-1α promoter. Sequencing, Southern blotting, immunoblotting and immunofluorescence analysis of parasite-infected red blood cells, demonstrated that the egfp-bsd gene was expressed and stably integrated solely into the ef-1α locus of both, B. bigemina and B. bovis. Interestingly, heterologous B. bigemina ef-1α sequences were able to drive integration into the B. bovis genome by homologous recombination, and the stably integrated B. bigemina ef-1α-A promoter is fully functional in B. bovis. Collectively, the data provides a new tool for genetic analysis of these parasites, and suggests that the development of vaccine platform delivery systems based on transfected B. bovis and B. bigemina parasites using homologous and heterologous promoters is feasible.
- Published
- 2018
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