The structure and function of nematode pathogenicity islands

线虫致病岛的结构与功能

• 批准号: BB/X008673/1
• 负责人: Mark Viney
• 金额: $ 78.67万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FX008673%2F1
• 关键词: structure; function; nematode; pathogenicity; islands

Parasitic nematode worms are some of the most abundant parasites on the planet - it is normal for animals and plants to be infected with them. Nematode worms infect about a quarter of people on the planet, mainly the young and poor in the developing world. They are also important parasites of livestock, and continued production of meat, milk, wool etc. requires controlling these parasites.Despite the ubiquity and importance of these parasites, we don't understand how they harm their hosts. Specifically, we don't understand what genes they use to live inside their hosts and to feed on them, but it is this which ultimately harms hosts. If we understand more about these genes we could better predict how these might evolve and we could think about new ways to better control these parasites, which we need to do to protect human and animal health, and to secure food production.We have discovered 12 concentrated sets of genes that we think control infection by a parasitic nematode. Looking at our pilot data we see that these sets of genes differ a lot among different individual worms and we think this is a tell-tale sign that the worms are using these sets of genes to compete with one another inside the host, and that this competition is driving the harm that these parasites cause to their hosts.We are now proposing to investigate these sets of genes is more detail, to very precisely understand how they differ among individual worms, and to see whether or not different genetic types naturally occur together inside a host. By looking at the gene sequences we'll also predict which worms should be most different from each other in how they infect hosts, and then we'll test this in experiments with laboratory animals. In this way our work will move from just comparing gene sequences to also testing how nematode worms actually infect hosts. We will study this in a nematode parasite called Strongyloides that naturally infects rats in the UK, but which we can also study in the lab.By testing our ides we will establish whether or not we have discovered the sets of genes that parasitic nematodes use to infect hosts. If so, this opens up a whole new understanding of how nematode worms infect and cause harm to their hosts, which can then be used to better understand, predict and treat these infections in the future.

寄生线虫蠕虫是地球上一些最丰富的寄生虫 - 动物和植物被它们感染是正常的。线虫蠕虫感染了地球上约四分之一的人，主要是发展中国家的年轻人和穷人。它们也是牲畜的重要寄生虫，并且继续生产肉，牛奶，羊毛等。需要控制这些寄生虫。尽管这些寄生虫的无处不在和重要性，但我们不明白它们如何伤害他们的寄主。具体来说，我们不了解他们用哪些基因居住在宿主中并以他们为食，但最终会损害宿主。如果我们对这些基因有了更多的了解，我们可以更好地预测这些基因可能如何发展，我们可以考虑更好地控制这些寄生虫的新方法，我们需要采取措施来保护人类和动物的健康，并确保粮食生产。查看我们的飞行员数据，我们看到这些基因在不同的个体蠕虫中有很大差异，我们认为这是一个明显的迹象，表明蠕虫正在使用这些基因在主机内部互相竞争，而这项竞争正在驱动这些寄生虫对宿主造成的伤害，现在我们愿意在自然中发现这些类型的范围，以使这些范围更加精确，以至于他们是否会发现这些类型的范围，并且不同意这些类型的范围。主机内部。通过查看基因序列，我们还可以预测哪些蠕虫在感染宿主方面应该彼此不同，然后我们将在实验动物的实验中对其进行测试。这样，我们的工作将从仅比较基因序列到测试线虫蠕虫实际感染宿主的方式。我们将在一个称为强层的线虫寄生虫中对其进行研究，该寄生虫自然会感染英国的大鼠，但我们也可以在实验室中研究。通过测试我们的IDE，我们将确定我们是否发现了寄生虫用来感染宿主的基因集。如果是这样，这将为线虫蠕虫如何感染并对宿主造成伤害的全新理解，然后可以将其用于更好地理解，预测和治疗这些感染。