Laboratory Medicine Center, The Second Hospital & Clinical Medical School, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730030, P. R. China.
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730046, P. R. China.
BMC Genomics. 2024 Aug 26;25(1):804. doi: 10.1186/s12864-024-10731-2.
SET domain-containing histone lysine methyltransferases (HKMTs) and JmjC domain-containing histone demethylases (JHDMs) are essential for maintaining dynamic changes in histone methylation across parasite development and infection. However, information on the HKMTs and JHDMs in human pathogenic piroplasms, such as Babesia duncani and Babesia microti, and in veterinary important pathogens, including Babesia bigemina, Babesia bovis, Theileria annulata and Theileria parva, is limited.
A total of 38 putative KMTs and eight JHDMs were identified using a comparative genomics approach. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the putative KMTs can be divided into eight subgroups, while the JHDMs belong to the JARID subfamily, except for BdJmjC1 (BdWA1_000016) and TpJmjC1 (Tp Muguga_02g00471) which cluster with JmjC domain only subfamily members. The motifs of SET and JmjC domains are highly conserved among piroplasm species. Interspecies collinearity analysis provided insight into the evolutionary duplication events of some SET domain and JmjC domain gene families. Moreover, relative gene expression analysis by RT‒qPCR demonstrated that the putative KMT and JHDM gene families were differentially expressed in different intraerythrocytic developmental stages of B. duncani, suggesting their role in Apicomplexa parasite development.
Our study provides a theoretical foundation and guidance for understanding the basic characteristics of several important piroplasm KMT and JHDM families and their biological roles in parasite differentiation.
SET 结构域包含的组蛋白赖氨酸甲基转移酶（HKMTs）和 JmjC 结构域包含的组蛋白去甲基化酶（JHDMs）对于维持寄生虫发育和感染过程中组蛋白甲基化的动态变化至关重要。然而，关于人类致病巴贝斯虫，如巴贝斯虫 duncan 和巴贝斯虫 microti，以及兽医重要病原体，包括双芽巴贝斯虫、牛巴贝斯虫、环形泰勒虫和卵形泰勒虫中的 HKMTs 和 JHDMs 的信息有限。
采用比较基因组学方法共鉴定了 38 个假定的 KMT 和 8 个 JHDM。系统发育分析表明，假定的 KMT 可分为 8 个亚组，而 JHDM 属于 JARID 亚家族，除了 BdJmjC1（BdWA1_000016）和 TpJmjC1（Tp Muguga_02g00471）与仅含 JmjC 结构域的亚家族成员聚类外。SET 和 JmjC 结构域的基序在巴贝斯虫物种中高度保守。种间共线性分析深入了解了一些 SET 结构域和 JmjC 结构域基因家族的进化复制事件。此外，通过 RT‒qPCR 的相对基因表达分析表明，假定的 KMT 和 JHDM 基因家族在巴贝斯虫 duncan 的不同红细胞内发育阶段的表达存在差异，表明它们在顶复门寄生虫发育中的作用。
本研究为理解几种重要的巴贝斯虫 KMT 和 JHDM 家族的基本特征及其在寄生虫分化中的生物学作用提供了理论基础和指导。
