Figure 2.

The stress response of virulent trophozoites involves heat shock proteins of the Hsp70 family. In the genome of E. histolytica HM1:IMSS strain, 86 genes encoding HSP proteins have been identified; of these, 78 genes have a transcriptional response in trophozoites undergoing OS. Gene expression analysis of stressed trophozoites indicates that the gene family encoding Hsp70 is preferentially upregulated (fold changes >3) in highly virulent amoebae; the Hsp101 encoding genes appear preferentially upregulated in virulent and attenuated amoebae, whereas only a gene encoding one HSP transcription factors is upregulated in attenuated trophozoites. In addition, 42 genes encoding HSPs are expressed at comparable mRNA levels in both types of trophozoites subjected to OS. The EHI_ prefix followed by numbers matches the gene identity in AmoebaDB database (https://amoebadb.Org).