Sonya Taylor

TL;DR: Results suggest that secreted kinases unique to the Apicomplexa are crucial in the host-pathogen interaction.

TL;DR: Genetic mapping revealed two closely adjacent quantitative trait loci on parasite chromosome VIIa that control the extreme virulence of the type I lineage and identified the candidate virulence gene ROP18, a highly polymorphic serine-threonine kinase that was secreted into the host cell during parasite invasion.

TL;DR: A high frequency of closely adjacent, apparent double crossover events that may represent gene conversions and large regions of genetic homogeneity among the archetypal clonal lineages are detected, reflecting the relatively few genetic outbreeding events that have occurred since their recent origin are detected.

TL;DR: The results establish that up-regulation of expression and selection at ROP18 in T. gondii has resulted in three distinct alleles with widely different levels of acute virulence in the mouse model, demonstrating that sweeping changes in population structure can result from alterations in a single gene.

TL;DR: Data provided provide statistically robust proof that the genetic system is Mendelian and that meiosis occurs and support the occurrence of meiosis to form haploid gametes that then fuse to form the diploid progeny in a single round of mating.