Low Dose Gamma Irradiation of Trypanosoma evansi Parasites Identifies Gene Transcripts Involved in Establishing Disease in Mice Post Irradiation

Transcriptome analysis of irradiated T evansi parasites The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma evansi is responsible for causing Surra in a variety of mammalian hosts over a wide geographical area. In order to identify which genes and processes are required to establish disease in mice, parasites were irradiated over a range using a Cobalt60 gamma source. A custom Trypanosome spp. array that covers the genomes of three trypanosome species, T. brucei, T. evansi and T. congolense was designed by Affymetrix with an average of 9300 whole gene transcripts from all three species were targeted. Irradiation differentially affected the abundance of gene transcripts in a dose-dependent trend. We present these genes as necessary for repair from irradiation damage, and essential for disease establishment in mice post irradiation. We analyzed RNA from 67 samples of T. evansi irradiated samples with non irradiated controls using the Affymetrix TrypMS array. Data was processed by Affymetrix Exon Array Computational Tool. A minimum of 3 techinical replicates were performed for each dose and time delay sample point.