Transient transfection and expression in the obligate intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan pathogen that produces severe disease in humans and animals. This obligate intracellular parasite provides an excellent model for the study of how such pathogens are able to invade, survive, and replicate intracellularly. DNA encoding chloramphenicol acetyltransferase was introduced into T. gondii and transiently expressed with the use of three vectors based on different Toxoplasma genes. The ability to introduce genes and have them efficiently and faithfully expressed is an essential tool for understanding the structure-function relation of genes and their products.