Toxoplasma gondii infection induces early host cell cycle arrest and DNA damage in primary human host cells by a MYR1-dependent mechanism

Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate intracellular parasite, control its host cell cycle through mechanisms that are not fully understood. Key effector molecules, including MYR1 and HCE1, play roles in translocating parasite proteins and inducing host cellular cyclin E1 overexpression, respectively. We investigated the early role of MYR1- and HCE1-driven host cell cycle arrest and DNA damage (up to 3 h p.i.). Our findings showed that T. gondii-infected cells experienced S-phase arrest and displayed double-strand DNA breaks as soon as 15 min p.i. This condition persisted until 3 h p.i., at which point we also observed increased host cell binucleation and micronuclei formation, both hallmarks of genomic instability. Furthermore, host cells responded to DNA damage by activating the ATM branch of the homologous recombination repair pathway. MYR1 was shown to be crucial, as TgΔmyr1 tachyzoites failed to induce S-phase arrest and DNA damage foci. In contrast, the absence of HCE1 did not produce these effects, suggesting that cyclin E1 expression was not involved. Also, DNA damage was demonstrated to be ROS-independent, suggesting that ROS did not trigger DNA damage. Our results suggest that T. gondii compromises host cellular DNA integrity depending on MYR1 shortly after infection, maintaining it over time.