ArticleMolecular and cellular biology1999
Predominance of duplicative VSG gene conversion in antigenic variation in African trypanosomes.
Article in Molecular and cellular biology, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers.
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Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed.
- Detection of antibodies against the African parasite Trypanosoma brucei using synthetic glycosylphosphatidylinositol oligosaccharide fragments.Glycoconjugate journal · 2025Article
- Competition among variants is predictable and contributes to the antigenic variation dynamics of African trypanosomes.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Telomere maintenance in African trypanosomes.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2023Review
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- Regulation of Antigenic Variation byPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Mining the pervasiveness of surra in different animal species of Northeastern states of India: Assam, Mizoram and Tripura.Journal of parasitic diseases : official organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology · 2021Article
- The MRN complex promotes DNA repair by homologous recombination and restrains antigenic variation in African trypanosomes.Nucleic acids research · 2021Article
- May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor: Non-deterministic Mechanisms Diversifying Cell Surface Molecule Expression.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Telomere Roles in Fungal Genome Evolution and Adaptation.Frontiers in genetics · 2021Article
- Editorial: Telomere Flexibility and Versatility: A Role of Telomeres in Adaptive Potential.Frontiers in genetics · 2021Article
- Keeping Balance Between Genetic Stability and Plasticity at the Telomere and Subtelomere ofFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- DNA Double-Strand Breaks: A Double-Edged Sword for Trypanosomatids.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Frequent Recombination Events inPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Variant antigen diversity in Trypanosoma vivax is not driven by recombination.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Escaping the immune system by DNA repair and recombination in African trypanosomes.Open biology · 2019Review
- Application of long read sequencing to determine expressed antigen diversity in Trypanosoma brucei infections.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2019Article
- Evaluation of mechanisms that may generate DNA lesions triggering antigenic variation in African trypanosomes.PLoS pathogens · 2018Review
- Endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation and disposal of misfolded GPI-anchored proteins in Trypanosoma brucei.Molecular biology of the cell · 2018Article
- The Structure of a Conserved Telomeric Region Associated with Variant Antigen Loci in the Blood Parasite Trypanosoma congolense.Genome biology and evolution · 2018Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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4 authors.
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Abstract
A number of mechanisms have been described by which African trypanosomes undergo the genetic switches that differentially activate their variant surface glycoprotein genes (VSGs) and bring about antigenic variation. These mechanisms have been observed mainly in trypanosome lines adapted, by rapid syringe passaging, to laboratory conditions. Such "monomorphic" lines, which routinely yield only the proliferative bloodstream form and do not develop through their life cycle, have VSG switch rates up to 4 or 5 orders of magnitude lower than those of nonadapted lines. We have proposed that nonadapted, or pleomorphic, trypanosomes normally have an active VSG switch mechanism, involving gene duplication, that is depressed, or from which a component is absent, in monomorphic lines. We have characterized 88 trypanosome clones from the first two relapse peaks of a single rabbit infection with pleomorphic trypanosomes and shown that they represent 11 different variable antigen types (VATs). The pattern of appearance in the first relapse peak was generally reproducible in three more rabbit infections. Nine of these VATs had activated VSGs by gene duplication, the tenth possibly also had done so, and only one had activated a VSG by the transcriptional switch mechanism that predominates in monomorphic lines. At least 10 of the donor genes have telomeric silent copies, and many reside on minichromosomes. It appears that trypanosome antigenic variation is dominated by one, relatively highly active, mechanism rather than by the plethora of pathways described before.
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