Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan pathogen that causes moderate to severe diarrhea in both humans and animals. Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are attractive drug targets against cryptosporidiosis given their critical role in the life cycle of Cryptosporidium spp. and their absence in human and animal hosts. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to endogenously tag the CpCDPK2A gene in C. parvum IIdA20G1-HLJ strain with the hemagglutinin (HA) epitope and to delete the CpCDPK2A gene. An immunofluorescence assay was performed to localize the CpCDPK2A expression in the tagged strain and a luciferase assay was performed to compare growth rates of the tagged and deletion strains in vitro. Oocyst shedding, parasite load, villus length/crypt height ratio and survival of infected mice were used to evaluate the function of CpCDPK2A in vivo. The results revealed that CpCDPK2A was expressed in all the intracellular developmental stages, especially in the motile stages of sporozoites and merozoites. While CpCDPK2A is dispensable, deletion of the gene significantly reduced the growth of late asexual and sexual stages in vitro. In an interferon-γ knockout mouse model, gene deletion of CpCDPK2A reduced oocyst shedding by 25-fold and increased survival of infected mice. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These observations suggest that CpCDPK2A may contribute to both asexual and sexual replication of C. parvum and may be a potential target to block the transmission of this important zoonotic pathogen.