An efficient Cumate-inducible system for procyclic and bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei

Publication date: Available online 21 April 2017 Source:Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology Author(s): Feng-Jun Li, Zhi-Shen Xu, Htay Mon Aye, Anaïs Brasseur, Zhao-Rong Lun, Kevin S.W. Tan, Cynthia Y. He In Trypanosoma brucei, the tetracycline-inducible system enables tightly-regulated, highly-efficient expression of recombinant proteins or double-stranded RNA in both procyclic and bloodstream form cells, providing useful molecular genetic tools to study gene functions. An alternative, vanillic acid-inducible system is recently described for procyclic T. brucei, providing ∼18-fold increase in GFP reporter expression upon induction (Sunter JD. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2016, 207:45-48). Here we describe a cumate-inducible system that allows efficient, tunable gene expression showing >300-fold increase in GFP expression upon induction. The cumate-inducible system can be used alone or together with the tetracycline-inducible system, in both procyclic and bloodstream form T. brucei. Efficient cumate-inducible expression is also achieved in T. brucei-infected mice. Graphical abstract
Source: Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Source Type: research