Morphogenesis in Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes proceeds via a highly asymmetric cell division.

ABSTRACT: Trypanosoma cruzi is a protist parasite that is the causative agent of Chagas' disease, a neglected tropical disease endemic to the Americas. T. cruzi cells are highly polarized and undergo morphological changes as they cycle within their insect and mammalian hosts. Work on related trypanosomatids has described cell division mechanisms in several life-cycle stages and identified a set of essential morphogenic proteins that serve as markers for key events during trypanosomatid division. Here, we use Cas9-based tagging of morphogenic genes, live-cell imaging, and expansion microscopy to study the cell division mechanism of the insect-resident epimastigote form of T. cruzi, which represents an understudied trypanosomatid morphotype. We find that T. cruzi epimastigo

SUBMITTER: Campbell PC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10245916 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature