“Self-cleaving” 2A peptide from porcine teschovirus-1 mediates cleavage of dual fluorescent proteins in transgenic Eimeria tenella

The “self-cleaving” 2A sequence of picornavirus, which mediates ribosome-skipping events, enables the generation of two or more separate peptide products from one mRNA containing one or more “self-cleaving” 2A sequences. In this study, we introduced a single 2A sequence of porcine teschovirus-1 (P2A) linked to two fluorescent protein genes, the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) gene and the red fluorescent protein (RFP) gene, in a single cassette into transgenic Eimeria tenella (EtER). As expected, we obtained two separated protein molecules rather than a fused protein, although the two molecules were translated from the same mRNA carrying a single “self-cleaving” 2A sequence. Importantly, RFP led by a secretion signal was secreted into parasitophorous vacuoles, while EYFP localized mainly to the nucleus of EtER. Our results demonstrate that the “self-cleaving” 2A sequence actively mediated cleavage of polyproteins in the apicomplexan parasite E. tenella. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13567-016-0351-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.