Synchronous development of Eimeria tenella in chicken caeca and utility of laser microdissection for purification of single stage schizont RNA.

Eimeria tenella is recognized worldwide as a significant pathogen in the poultry industry. However, a lack of methods for isolating developing schizonts has hindered the use of transcriptome analyses to discover novel and developmentally regulated genes. In the present study, we characterized the long-term successive development of E. tenella in infected chicken caeca and assessed the utility of laser microdissection (LMD) for the isolation of schizont RNA. Developmental stages, including those of the first, second, and third-generation schizonts and gametocytes, were synchronous. Using LMD, only the mature second-generation schizonts were successfully excised from the lamina propria, and non-degraded RNA was purified from the schizonts. E. tenella-specific genes were amplified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). These results augment our understanding of the E. tenella life cycle, and reveal LMD as a potentially useful tool for gene expression analyses of the intracellular stages of E. tenella.