Novel vacuole biology in chronic Toxoplasma infection

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Abstract Oral ingestion of Toxoplasma gondii cysts establishes a chronic infection marked by the development of cysts in the central nervous system. Reactivation of dormant Toxoplasma gondii cysts in the central nervous system in AIDS patients causes Toxoplasmic encephalitis, a clinically difficult to treat and frequently lethal encephalitis. The parasite factors that enable the chronic persistence and oral infectivity of cysts are still poorly understood. We hypothesize that the ROP35 kinase and other members of the Toxoplasma gondii WNG kinase family play important roles in maintaining persisting cysts and their oral infectivity. This study will characterize the role of ROP35 in mediating successful chronic infection, and the role of WNG kinases, and their protein complexes, that enable the persistence of viable and orally infectious Toxoplasma gondii cysts.