Cargando…

Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia

Development of in vitro culture and completion of genome sequencing of several Babesia parasites promoted the efforts to establish transfection systems for these parasites to dissect the gene functions. It has been more than a decade since the establishment of first transfection for Babesia bovis, t...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hakimi, Hassan, Asada, Masahito, Kawazu, Shin-ichiro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8541370/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34679052
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8100222
_version_ 1784589213365174272
author Hakimi, Hassan
Asada, Masahito
Kawazu, Shin-ichiro
author_facet Hakimi, Hassan
Asada, Masahito
Kawazu, Shin-ichiro
author_sort Hakimi, Hassan
collection PubMed
description Development of in vitro culture and completion of genome sequencing of several Babesia parasites promoted the efforts to establish transfection systems for these parasites to dissect the gene functions. It has been more than a decade since the establishment of first transfection for Babesia bovis, the causative agent of bovine babesiosis. However, the number of genes that were targeted by genetic tools in Babesia parasites is limited. This is partially due to the low efficiencies of these methods. The recent adaptation of CRISPR/Cas9 for genome editing of Babesia bovis can accelerate the efforts for dissecting this parasite’s genome and extend the knowledge on biological aspects of erythrocytic and tick stages of Babesia. Additionally, glmS ribozyme as a conditional knockdown system is available that could be used for the characterization of essential genes. The development of high throughput genetic tools is needed to dissect the function of multigene families, targeting several genes in a specific pathway, and finally genome-wide identification of essential genes to find novel drug targets. In this review, we summarized the current tools that are available for Babesia and the genes that are being targeted by these tools. This may draw a perspective for the future development of genetic tools and pave the way for the identification of novel drugs or vaccine targets.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8541370
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85413702021-10-24 Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia Hakimi, Hassan Asada, Masahito Kawazu, Shin-ichiro Vet Sci Review Development of in vitro culture and completion of genome sequencing of several Babesia parasites promoted the efforts to establish transfection systems for these parasites to dissect the gene functions. It has been more than a decade since the establishment of first transfection for Babesia bovis, the causative agent of bovine babesiosis. However, the number of genes that were targeted by genetic tools in Babesia parasites is limited. This is partially due to the low efficiencies of these methods. The recent adaptation of CRISPR/Cas9 for genome editing of Babesia bovis can accelerate the efforts for dissecting this parasite’s genome and extend the knowledge on biological aspects of erythrocytic and tick stages of Babesia. Additionally, glmS ribozyme as a conditional knockdown system is available that could be used for the characterization of essential genes. The development of high throughput genetic tools is needed to dissect the function of multigene families, targeting several genes in a specific pathway, and finally genome-wide identification of essential genes to find novel drug targets. In this review, we summarized the current tools that are available for Babesia and the genes that are being targeted by these tools. This may draw a perspective for the future development of genetic tools and pave the way for the identification of novel drugs or vaccine targets. MDPI 2021-10-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8541370/ /pubmed/34679052 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8100222 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Hakimi, Hassan
Asada, Masahito
Kawazu, Shin-ichiro
Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia
title Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia
title_full Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia
title_fullStr Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia
title_full_unstemmed Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia
title_short Recent Advances in Molecular Genetic Tools for Babesia
title_sort recent advances in molecular genetic tools for babesia
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8541370/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34679052
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8100222
work_keys_str_mv AT hakimihassan recentadvancesinmoleculargenetictoolsforbabesia
AT asadamasahito recentadvancesinmoleculargenetictoolsforbabesia
AT kawazushinichiro recentadvancesinmoleculargenetictoolsforbabesia