Genetic Analysis of Cryptosporidium

隐孢子虫是一种顶端复合体寄生虫，是引起严重腹泻的重要原因之一。 疾病。美国超过50%的与用水有关的疫情是由隐孢子虫和 因此，寄生虫被认为是B类潜在的生物恐怖主义病原体。免疫抑制的患者 隐孢子虫病是一种极易感染并患有危及生命的慢性病 定义了机会性感染。在全球范围内，两岁以下儿童承担着主要的疾病负担。 而隐孢子虫是这一群体中第二大腹泻病原体。在最初的 在支持期我们制定了稳定的转化、一系列的报告基因和CRISPR-CAS9 介导的基因敲除。我们应用并进一步磨练这些新工具来研究细胞内 寄生虫操纵它的宿主细胞。隐孢子虫在一种独特的重塑的细胞利基细胞中茁壮成长 这对发病机制、药物敏感性和免疫相互作用至关重要。我们的中心假设是 寄生虫将蛋白质直接注入宿主肠道细胞，而这些蛋白质是 侵袭、重塑和免疫逃避的影响因素。我们已经发现了第一组这样的因素 微小隐孢子虫。这个应用程序将使用一系列现代方法来定义寄生虫的导出 蛋白质组和了解效应蛋白的功能，以首先建立和维持寄生虫 感染。

Cryptosporidium is an apicomplexan parasite and one of the most important causes of severe diarrheal disease. More than 50% of U.S. outbreaks linked to water use are caused by Cryptosporidium and the parasite is thus considered a category B potential bioterrorism agent. Immunosuppressed patients are extremely susceptible and suffer life-threatening chronic disease, cryptosporidiosis is an original AIDS defining opportunistic infections. Globally, children under the age of two bear the main disease burden and Cryptosporidium is the second most important diarrheal pathogen in this group. Over the initial period of support we developed stable transformation, a series of reporter genes and CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene knock out. We apply and further hone these new tools to investigate how this intracellular parasite manipulates its host cell. Cryptosporidium thrives in a uniquely remodeled cellular niche cells that is critical to pathogenesis, drug susceptibility and immune interaction. Our central hypothesis is that the parasite injects proteins directly into host enterocytes and that those proteins are the mechanistic effectors of invasion, remodeling and immune evasion. We have discovered the first set of such factors in C. parvum. This application will use an array of modern approaches to define the parasite's exported proteome and to understand the function of effector proteins to first establish and then maintain parasite infection.