RNAseq of intracellular Toxoplasma gondii treated with Tartrolon E

Tartrolon E is a pan anti-apicomplexan compound derived from a symbiotic bacteria of shipworms. The mechanism of action of the compound is unknown, and attempts to select parasite mutants resistant to the compound has been unsuccessful. In this study, RNAseq was performed on human foreskin fibroblast cells (HFF) infected with Toxoplasma gondii RH strain and treated with Tartrolon E to identify genes targeted by the compound. HFF and RH strain T. gondii were cultured under standard conditions. HFFs were infected with T. gondii for 24 hours and then treated with vehicle (DMSO), 5 or 20 ng/ml of Tartrolon E. Total RNA was collected 4, 8 and 12 hours post treatment and RNA seq analysis was performed. Comparisons were made between samples treated with different concentrations of TrtE or DMSO and samples treated for different lengths of time.Genes were considered deferentially expressed when both the p-value and q-value, estimated based using a negative binomial model, were below a significance value of 0.05.