Coexistence of sense and anti-sense mRNAs of variant surface protein in Giardia lamblia trophozoites

A strategy of the parasitic protozoan Giardia lamblia to evade attack from the host immune system is periodic changes of its surface antigen, a member of the variant surface protein (VSP) family. A post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanism has been proposed to explain the presence of only one among many possible VSPs at any time. To investigate this phenomenon further, we extracted total RNA from cultured trophozoites of the G. lamblia C2 isolate, and cDNA was reverse-transcribed from the RNA. Sense and anti-sense VSPs were amplified from the total cDNA using nested PCR with primers designed from the 3′-conserved region and the known 5′ or 3′ end of the cDNA library. Sequence analyses of the amplified products revealed more than 34 full-length antisense VSPs and a smear of sense VSPs. Sequence alignments and comparisons revealed that these VSPs contained variable N-termini and conserved C-termini, and could be classified into 5 clades based on the sizes and variations of the N-terminal sequence. All antisense VSPs existed in the sense forms, but no corresponding antisense VSP existed for sense RNA (snsRNA) 16. The coexistence of sense and antisense VSP mRNAs in cultured G. lamblia supports the post-transcriptional regulation of VSP expression. We propose that VSPs transcribed simultaneously in the sense and antisense forms form double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) which are degraded by the Dicer endonuclease, while a VSP without an antisense transcription (e.g., snsRNA16) will be expressed on the surface of Giardia. In addition, in the course of this investigation VSPs were identified that were previously not known. PCR-based amplification of specific sense and antisense VSP cDNAs can be used to identify the specific VSP on G. lamblia trophozoites, which is easier than using specific monoclonal antibody approaches.