ArticleeLife2022
Comment on 'Unexpected plasticity in the life cycle of
Article in eLife, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Glycerol metabolism triggers trypanosome differentiation into transmissible forms in mammalian tissue-like conditions.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Differentiation granules, a dynamic regulator of T. brucei development.Nature communications · 2024Article
- A conserved trypanosomatid differentiation regulator controls substrate attachment and morphological development in Trypanosoma congolense.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- 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
- Extracellular release of two peptidases dominates generation of the trypanosome quorum-sensing signal.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Article
- Paving the Way: Contributions of Big Data to Apicomplexan and Kinetoplastid Research.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Schuster et al. make the important observation that small numbers of trypanosomes can infect tsetse flies, and further argue that this can occur whether the infecting parasites are developmentally 'slender' or 'stumpy'(Schuster et al., 2021). We welcome their careful experiments but disagree that they require a rethink of the trypanosome life-cycle. Instead, the study reveals that stumpy forms are more likely to successfully infect flies, the key limit on parasite transmission, and we predict this advantage would be greatly amplified in tsetse infections in the field. Further, we argue that stumpy forms are defined by a suite of molecular adaptations for life-cycle progression, with morphology being a secondary feature. Finally, their dominance in chronic infections means most natural tsetse infections would involve stumpy forms, even in small numbers. Our interpretation does not require re-evaluation of the obligatory life cycle of the parasite, where stumpy forms are selected to sustain transmission.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.