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The beta subunit of AMP-activated protein kinase is critical for cell cycle progression and parasite development in Toxoplasma gondii

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Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread eukaryotic pathogen that causes life-threatening diseases in humans and diverse animals. It has a complex life cycle with multiple developmental stages, which are timely adjusted according to growth conditions. But the regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown. Here we show that the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a key regulator of energy homeostasis in eukaryotes, plays crucial roles in controlling the cell cycle progression and bradyzoite development in Toxoplasma. Deleting the β regulatory subunit of AMPK in the type II strain ME49 caused massive DNA damage and increased spontaneous conversion to bradyzoites (parasites at chronic infection stage), leading to severe growth arrest and reduced virulence of the parasites. Under alkaline stress, all Δampkβ mutants converted to a bradyzoite-like state but the cell division pattern was significantly impaired, resulting in compromised parasite viability. Moreover, we found that phosphorylation of the catalytic subunit AMPKα was greatly increased in alkaline stressed parasites, whereas AMPKβ deletion mutants failed to do so. Phosphoproteomics found that many proteins with predicted roles in cell cycle and cell division regulation were differentially phosphorylated after AMPKβ deletion, under both normal and alkaline stress conditions. Together, these results suggest that the parasite AMPK has critical roles in safeguarding cell cycle progression, and guiding the proper exist of the cell cycle to form mature bradyzoites when the parasites are stressed. Consistent with this model, growth of parasites was not significantly altered when AMPKβ was deleted in a strain that was naturally reluctant to bradyzoite development.

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Data availability

All data relevant to study are available within this manuscript and its supplementary materials. Phospho-proteomic data generated in this study were deposited in iProx (URL: https://www.iprox.cn/page/DSV021.html;?url=1650706056097HqYv. Password: zToO) prior to publication.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Zhe Hu from the State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University for support of confocal laser scanning microscopy. We also thank Huiyan Diao, Lihong Zhang and Taifang Zhou for their contributions in the early stage of this project.

Funding

This research was funded by the Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2020B0301030007) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31822054).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jichao Yang, Xuke Yang, Anqi Liu, Yaqiong Li, Zhipeng Niu, Congcong Lyu, Xiaohan Liang, Ningbo Xia, Jianmin Cui, Mingjun Li & Bang Shen

  2. National Facility for Protein Science in Shanghai, Zhangjiang Lab, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, 201210, People’s Republic of China

    Ping Wu & Chao Peng

  3. Key Laboratory of Preventive Medicine in Hubei Province, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Bang Shen

  4. Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Bang Shen

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  1. Jichao Yang
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Contributions

JY and BS designed the study; JY performed the experiments; PW, CP, AL, XY and CL contributed significantly to phospho-proteomic experiments; ZN and XY contributed significantly to Western blot assays; CL, AL, XY and XL contributed significantly to animal experiments; NX, JC and ML helped with data analyses; XY and YL were involved in discussions and helped with the designs of the experiments; JY and BS performed the data analyses and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bang Shen.

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All animal experiments were approved by The Scientific Ethic Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University (permit #: HZAUMO-2020–0071).

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Yang, J., Yang, X., Liu, A. et al. The beta subunit of AMP-activated protein kinase is critical for cell cycle progression and parasite development in Toxoplasma gondii. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 79, 532 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-022-04556-z

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