Impact of equilibrative nucleoside transporters on <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> infection and differentiation.

ABSTRACT: Toxoplasma gondii cannot synthesize purines de novo and must import them; however, the functional interplay among its four equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs) homologs remains unclear. We systematically deconstructed this network by combining CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts with an auxin-inducible degron. Across all phenotypic assays, tachyzoite replication, nucleoside-analog sensitivity, alkaline-stress-induced differentiation, and murine cyst formation, the ΔTgENT2 strain was indistinguishable from the parental line, indicating that TgENT2 is dispensable under the conditions tested. In contrast, the double mutant ΔTgAT1ΔTgENT3 exhibited delayed bradyzoite differentiation in vitro and produced smaller brain cysts in vivo. This double deletion triggered approxima

SUBMITTER: Messina G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12607627 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature