Progesterone interferes with microtubule-dependent cell division in Toxoplasma gondii.

Authors

Zhili Shan, Zifu Zhu, Na Yang, Yanqun Pei, Jing Liu, Yong Fu, Qun Liu

Published in

Parasites & vectors. Jul 09, 2026. Epub Jul 09, 2026.

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic intracellular parasite that can cause severe reproductive disorders during pregnancy. Progesterone is markedly elevated during pregnancy and has been shown to affect the replication of T. gondii. However, the downstream cellular processes and molecular mechanisms underlying progesterone-mediated regulation of parasite replication remain unclear.
Transcriptomic analysis was performed to investigate the global gene expression changes in tachyzoites after progesterone treatment. Differentially expressed genes were subjected to functional enrichment analysis. The effects of progesterone on parasite division were further assessed by immunofluorescence assays targeting subpellicular microtubules, centrosome, and organelles.
Transcriptomic analysis identified 329 differentially expressed genes after progesterone treatment, which were mainly enriched in microtubule-associated pathways, including microtubule motor activity and microtubule-based movement. Although the overall structure of subpellicular microtubules showed no detectable alteration, progesterone selectively disrupted division of the outer core of the centrosome, while the inner core of the centrosome was largely unaffected. Further analysis of organelle division showed that progesterone mainly interfered with early events of endodyogeny, including the segregation of the centrosome, Golgi, and apicoplast, whereas later division-related structures were less affected.
These findings indicate that progesterone impairs T. gondii replication by selectively interfering with microtubule-dependent processes, especially outer core centrosome division. This study provides new insight into how the pregnancy-associated hormone progesterone regulates parasite replication.

PMID:
42426865
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.