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Our work just came out today in print form in Nat Micro. Really a tour de force from Hisham Alrubaye on sexual development in Toxoplasma gondii. Well done! rdcu.be/feOj6

rdcu.beA single-cell atlas of Toxoplasma sexual development in the feline intestinal tractNature Microbiology - Single-cell RNA sequencing is used to study the sexual development of Toxoplasma gondii in cats, generating a transcriptional atlas and showing that the female-specific gene...

Jon Boyle

@boylelab.bsky.social

22 Apr

Hisham used single cell rnaseq on pre sexual and sexual stages to examine their developmental trajectories. He identified multiple stage specific genes and identified at least one that is required for oocyst production, AP2X6.

Jon Boyle

@boylelab.bsky.social

22 Apr

AP2X6 knockout parasites cannot make oocysts and we think this is because AP2X6 helps to repress expression of merozoite genes to promote female gamete development.

Jon Boyle

@boylelab.bsky.social

Lots of ways to get at this data yourself. The easiest is to download the cloupe file available on zenodo.19358900

22/4/26, 6:06 pm0 reposts1 like

Jon Boyle

@boylelab.bsky.social

22 Apr

Hope this data is useful for extending in vitro cultivation of Toxoplasma to more life stages and as a benchmark for determining how similar different life stages are to merozoites and male and female gametes. Thanks again to Hisham for being willing to take on this bold project for his PhD.