Abstract
Coenurus cerebralis, the metacestode of Taenia multiceps, causes coenurosis, a disease severely affecting goat, sheep, cattle and yak farming and resulting in huge economic losses annually. Annexins bind calcium ions and play an important role in flatworm parasite development. To explore potential functions of annexins in T. multiceps, three homologous genes, namely, TmAnxB2, TmAnxB3 and TmAnxB12, were screened from the transcriptome dataset, amplified from C. cerebralis cDNA and subjected to bioinformatics analysis. Then, polyclonal antibodies recognizing the recombinant TmAnxB2 (rTmAnxB2) and rTmAnxB3 were prepared for localization of TmAnxB2 and TmAnxB3 in different tissues and developmental stages by immunofluorescence. The transcription of all three genes was also measured by relative fluorescent quantitative PCR. The sizes of rTmAnxB2, rTmAnxB3 and rTmAnxB12 were 58.00, 53.06 and 53.51 kDa, respectively, and rTmAnxB12 was unstable. Both rTmAnxB2 and rTmAnxB3 were recognized by goat-positive T. multiceps sera in Western blots. Immunofluorescence revealed that TmAnxB2 and TmAnxB3 were localized in the protoscolex and cyst wall and TmAnxB3 was also detected in adult cortex. TmAnxB2 and TmAnxB12 mRNA levels were determined to be highest in oncospheres and protoscolex, whereas transcription of TmAnxB3 was highest in scolex and immature segments. Taken together, these findings indicate that TmAnxB2 and TmAnxB12 may play critical roles in T. multiceps larvae, while TmAnxB3 may have important functions in adults. These results will lay the foundation for functional research of annexins in T. multiceps.
Highlights
Taenia multiceps is a flatworm parasite that is widely distributed around the world, and its eggs enter the environment via feces of its definitive hosts such as dogs, wolves, foxes and other canids [1,2,3].Intermediate hosts, such as goats, sheep, cattle and yaks, are infected with coenurosis following ingestion of pasture containing parasite eggs
Sequencing analysis showed that genes for TmAnxB2, TmAnxB3 and TmAnxB12 contained
Multiple sequence alignment revealed that TmAnxB2 shares 96.33% identity with AnxB2 from T. solium (TsAnxB2; GenBank accession No AAY17503.1), 86.46% with E. granulosus annexin
Summary
Taenia multiceps is a flatworm parasite that is widely distributed around the world, and its eggs enter the environment via feces of its definitive hosts such as dogs, wolves, foxes and other canids [1,2,3].Intermediate hosts, such as goats, sheep, cattle and yaks, are infected with coenurosis following ingestion of pasture containing parasite eggs. Annexins are a class of phosphatide binding proteins with calcium binding activity These proteins are widely expressed in all eukaryotes and play important roles in various biological activities such as cell membrane transport, signal transduction, and calcium channel formation [15,16]. These proteins have been known to regulate the biological responses related to inflammation and help to maintain the stability of biofilm structure [15,16,17]. There is very little information available on annexins in the parasitic cestode
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
