Short-term temperature shifts impact the metacyclogenesis transcriptional responses in Trypanosoma cruzi.. Short-term temperature shifts and Trypanosoma cruzi.

During the last decades, climate change has become a serious global problem, having as main consequence the severe changes in temperature, which in turn affect the behavior and ecology of some infectious agents, among which we can find Trypanosoma cruzi. Studies in triatomines, principal vector of T. cruzi, have shown that changes in temperature affect the amount of metacyclic trypomastigotes (MT), making temperature a fundamental factor during this process. For this reason, the objective of this study was to evaluate how gene expression of T. cruzi is affected during the metacyclogenesis process when it is exposed to two different temperatures (27° C and 28° C) with respect to the control (26° C).A statistically significant difference was observed in the curves of metacyclogenesis between the temperatures evaluated and the control, where the DTU TcII exhibited a greater resistance to exposure at high temperatures with respect to TcI. Similar results were found when we analyzed gene expression in this DTU, presenting the greatest increase in down and up regulated genes when exposed to 28° C. The analysis of gene expression by chromosomes showed that chromosome 1, presented the highest amount of changes for both DTUs in all thermal treatments. Finally, the GO analyzes showed a decrease in the proteins involved mainly in the regulation of the processes related to the metabolism of lipids and carbohydrates, the evasion of oxidative stress, proteolysis and phosphorylation processes, and the decrease of ribosomal proteins in TcI and TcII, and in addition, an increase in the expression of GP63 proteins in TcII.Short-term temperature shifts generates an increase in the cell death of MT during metacyclogenesis as a consequence of a deregulation of the gene expression of different processes essential for the TcI and TcII DTUs of T. cruzi.