Microarray and KOG analysis of Acanthamoeba healyi genes up-regulated by mouse-brain passage

• The attenuated virulence of Acanthamoeba was recovered by serial Mouse-Brain Passage.
• Microarray analysis of MBP strain showed 601 genes were up-regulated.
• KOG analysis of up-regulated genes showed a high population in T and O articles.
• MBP up-regulated genes provide important information regarding the virulence factors.
• This research will lead to better treatment strategies for human Acanthamoeba infection.

Long-term cultivation in a laboratory could reduce the virulence of Acanthamoeba. To identify virulence factors of Acanthamoeba, the authors compared the transcription profiles of long-term cultivated Acanthamoeba healyi (OLD) and three times mouse-brain passaged A. healyi (MBP) using microarray analysis and eukaryotic orthologous group (KOG) assignments. Microarray analysis revealed that 601 genes were up-regulated by mouse-brain passage. The results of real-time PCR of 8 randomly selected genes up-regulated in the MBP strain confirmed microarray analysis findings. KOG assignments showed relatively higher percentages of the MBP strain up-regulated genes in T article (signal transduction mechanism), O article (posttranslational modification, protein turnover, chaperones), C article (energy production and conversion), and J article (translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis). In particular, the MBP strain showed higher expressions of cysteine protease and metalloprotease. A comparison of KOG assignments by microarray analysis and previous EST (expressed sequence tags) analysis showed similar populations of up-regulated genes. These results provide important information regarding the identification of virulence factors of pathogenic Acanthamoeba.

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