{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T18:19:43Z","timestamp":1782325183232,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,3]],"date-time":"2025-04-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1743638400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2022YFD1800201"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022YFD1800201"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["32473054"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32473054"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2022YFD1800201"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022YFD1800201"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["32473054"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32473054"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite capable of infecting warm-blooded vertebrates, including humans. In its intermediate hosts, T. gondii can transition between two life stages: the rapidly replicating tachyzoite and the quiescent bradyzoite. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the p24 protein acts as a cargo receptor, cycling between the ER and Golgi in the early secretory pathway to recruit cargo proteins into nascent vesicles. However, the function of p24 in T. gondii remains undefined. In this study, we identified four p24 proteins in T. gondii, with Tgp24\u03b4 specifically localizing to the ER\u2013Golgi system. Loss of p24\u03b4 in a type \u0399 strain (RH\u0394ku80) significantly reduced proliferation and virulence in mice. Transcriptome and proteomic analyses showed that Tg\u0394p24\u03b4 tachyzoites expressed high levels of bradyzoite-specific genes, including bag1, ldh2, and bpk1, under standard culture conditions. Additional data indicate that Tg\u0394p24\u03b4 tachyzoites can differentiate and form bradyzoites in vitro. This suggests that Tgp24\u03b4 is important for the parasite\u2019s growth.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms26073331","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,3]],"date-time":"2025-04-03T04:33:43Z","timestamp":1743654823000},"page":"3331","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Role of Toxoplasma gondii p24\u03b4 in Regulating the Transition from Tachyzoite to Bradyzoite Development"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Zifu","family":"Zhu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhu","family":"Ying","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanqun","family":"Pei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhili","family":"Shan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Peng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ming","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7309-0340","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jing","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health Security, Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vetpar.2004.09.005","article-title":"Toxoplasmosis\u2014A waterborne zoonosis","volume":"126","author":"Dubey","year":"2004","journal-title":"Vet. 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