TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schuster, Sarah
A1  - Lisack, Jaime
A1  - Subota, Ines
A1  - Zimmermann, Henriette
A1  - Reuter, Christian
A1  - Mueller, Tobias
A1  - Morriswood, Brooke
A1  - Engstler, Markus
T1  - Unexpected plasiticty in the life cycle of Trypanosoma brucei
T2  - eLife
N2  - African trypanosomes cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in cattle. These unicellular parasites are transmitted by the bloodsucking tsetse fly. In the mammalian host’s circulation, proliferating slender stage cells differentiate into cell cycle-arrested stumpy stage cells when they reach high population densities. This stage transition is thought to fulfil two main functions: first, it auto-regulates the parasite load in the host; second, the stumpy stage is regarded as the only stage capable of successful vector transmission. Here, we show that proliferating slender stage trypanosomes express the mRNA and protein of a known stumpy stage marker, complete the complex life cycle in the fly as successfully as the stumpy stage, and require only a single parasite for productive infection. These findings suggest a reassessment of the traditional view of the trypanosome life cycle. They may also provide a solution to a long-lasting paradox, namely the successful transmission of parasites in chronic infections, despite low parasitemia.
KW  - trypanosoma
KW  - sleeping sickness
KW  - tsetse fly
KW  - transmission
KW  - life cycle
KW  - development
Y1  - 2021
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/26174
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-261744
VL  - 10
ER  -