
Intestinal δ-6-desaturase determines hosts for Toxoplasma sexual reproduction - xoa
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/688580v1?rss=1
======
xoa
Toxoplasma is the somewhat infamous parasite that in the wild exclusively
reproduces in cats (it infects prey, mice, as part of its lifecycle and then
alters their behavior to make them easier for cats to catch, but then
reproduces in cats). There isn't any cure or vaccine, and still a lot of
research to do. But until now it hadn't been determined why reproduction was
species specific, and so the only way to get more to try to study was to raise
lab cats, infect them, incubate, and then kill them and harvest it. This team
figured out that linoleic acid was the key differentiator and now have done
preliminary work that shows they may be able to get them to go through a full
cycle in mice with the right drug (and genetic modification to eliminate that
requirement is the next step). It's pretty cool research and if they've got it
right would be a big deal for further Toxo studies, dramatically reducing the
research reqs and experimentation cycle time by allowing use of a standard lab
model and not depending on going through actual cats.

Edit to add: It looks like The Atlantic also has a good more general article
[1] of this research and overview of the surrounding context. I'm not sure if
it's available to everyone though, I'm a subscriber and sometimes I think they
paywall stuff.

1:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/groundbr...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/groundbreaking-
parasite-study-good-news-cats/593779/)

