Trichomonas vaginalis with a double-stranded RNA virus has upregulated levels of phenotypically variable immunogen mRNA

Some isolates of Trichomonas vaginalis carry a double-stranded RNA virus (TVV) and undergo phenotypic variation between surface expression and cytoplasmic expression of a prominent immunogen (P270). Only trichomonads with TVV express P270 on the surface. Northern (RNA) blots using a specific cDNA encoding the repeat element of the phenotypically varying P270 immunogen as a probe showed accumulation of P270 transcript only in isolates with TVV (V⁺) in contrast to isolates without the virus (V^-). To test further the influence of virus infection on P270 mRNA expression, V^- progeny, derived from the parental V⁺ isolates, were tested. Trichomonads of V^- progeny, like the fresh clinical V^- isolates, also showed no accumulation of P270 mRNA. By immunoblotting with a monoclonal antibody to the key repeated epitope of P270, it was found that V^- organisms had quantitatively less immunoreactive protein than the parental V⁺ isolates. Although V⁺ and V^- isolates contained proteins immunoreactive with the monoclonal antibody to P270, it was necessary to test for the presence of the P270 gene among all the isolates. As expected, Southern blots demonstrated that V⁺ and V^- trichomonads possessed the gene encoding P270. These data suggest that the double-stranded RNA virus of T. vaginalis is involved in the regulation of P270 mRNA accumulation.