Effect of Toxoplasma gondii efector TgIST on global transcriptome of human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs) upon type I IFN activation

TgIST is an effector secreted by Toxoplasma gondii into the host cell that translocates to the nucleus and block STAT1 mediated transcription. STAT1 is involved in type I and II interferon (IFN) mediated upregulation of range of anti-parasitic molecules. A total of 544,234,059 read sequences generated from 3 independent biological replicates were mapped to human hg19 reference genome. Type I IFN activation of HFFs infected with TgIST knockout parasites showed upregulation of genes involved in interferon signaling compared to wild type parasites. Overall design: HFFs were infected with wild type (RH) or TgIST knockout (RH KO) T. gondii parasites for 12 hours, followed by stimulation with or without human IFN-ß for 6 hours. Uninfected cells with or without IFN-ß treatment were used as controls. RNA samples isolated from 3 independent replicates were used for next-generation mRNA sequencing to analyze the ability of TgIST to regulate type I IFN responses in host cells.