Host transcriptional responses during chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection reveals sex specific differences that lead to altered protection against secondary infection

We sequenced the cerebral cortex transcriptome of both male and female mice either infected with T. gondii or age-matched uninfected controls. These transcriptomes were determined along the infection timeline with early (21 and 28 days) and late (3 and 6 months) chronic represented. We obtained 5.7 billion paired-end sequences and aligned them to the Mus musculus genome. We found that a majority of the host genes with greater abundance at day 21 post-infection are still more abundant 6 months post-infection in male and female mice, although, females have far fewer genes that are significantly less abundant. Genes that were significantly less abundant in males are involved with the immune response, and may lead to the slight increase in cyst numbers in males during chronic infection. The RNA from the cerebral cortex of CBA/J mice infected with the T. gondii strain ME49 strain after 21, 28, 90, and 180 days of infection was processed for Illumina sequencing.