Simultaneous transcriptome profiling of Trypanosoma cruzi parasites and their human host cells.

Here we report the prevalent heterogeneity of RNA processing sites across the genome. We also note the preference of different primary sites in various developmental stages presenting as a potential and interesting approach of posttranscriptional regulation, which may hypothetically contribute to the survival of the parasite across different environments. Our work has significantly enhanced the current genome annotation of T. cruzi.

In addition, using the T. cruzi and human genome sequence as reference, we explored these data with informatics tools to identify genes with significant regulation and successfully profiled gene expressions from both species simultaneously. We examined the subsets of differentially expressed genes both in the parasite and the host cell over the course of the infection to understand the mechanisms of invasion and intracellular survival strategy as well as host-pathogen interactions.

T. cruzi genes that were significantly regulated during the infection process might present as new targets for drug development, whereas human genes that were significantly regulated might signal the immunoinflammatory response triggered by the manipulation of the parasite. Furthermore, we investigated the gene expression patterns of T. cruzi across its different developmental stages, clustered gene with similar patterns, and identified possible sequence motifs in coexpressed gene clusters.