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. 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-β for 6 hours. Uninfected cells with or without IFN-β 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.