ArticleeLife2021
Unexpected plasticity in the life cycle of
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Glycerol metabolism triggers trypanosome differentiation into transmissible forms in mammalian tissue-like conditions.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Trypanosoma brucei cattle infections contain cryptic transmission-adapted bloodstream forms at low parasitaemia.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Thermo-related degeneration of stumpy forms of Trypanosoma brucei, the pathogen of African sleeping sickness.Advanced biotechnology · 2025Article
- Insight into the epigenetic regulation of gene expression in the bloodstream and procyclic forms ofNAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2025Article
- Article
- Bioengineered 3D microvessels and complementary animal models reveal mechanisms of Trypanosoma congolense sequestration.Communications biology · 2025Article
- A limitation lifted: A conditional knockdown system reveals essential roles for Polo-like kinase and Aurora kinase 1 inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Prevalence of trypanosomiasis caused byVeterinary world · 2024Article
- Targeting Cysteine Proteases and their Inhibitors to Combat Trypanosomiasis.Current medicinal chemistry · 2024Review
- Vector-borne Trypanosoma brucei parasites develop in artificial human skin and persist as skin tissue forms.Nature communications · 2023Article
- The lymphatic system favours survival of a unique T. brucei population.Biology open · 2023Article
- The developmental hierarchy and scarcity of replicative slender trypanosomes in blood challenges their role in infection maintenance.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Cell-cell communication in African trypanosomes.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Review
- Heme-deficient metabolism and impaired cellular differentiation as an evolutionary trade-off for human infectivity in Trypanosoma brucei gambiense.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Impact of pulmonary African trypanosomes on the immunology and function of the lung.Nature communications · 2022Article
- A multi-adenylate cyclase regulator at the flagellar tip controls African trypanosome transmission.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Extracellular release of two peptidases dominates generation of the trypanosome quorum-sensing signal.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
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.
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