A Mitogen-activated protein kinase controls differentiation of bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei.

ABSTRACT: African trypanosomes undergo differentiation in order to adapt to the mammalian host and the tsetse fly vector. To characterize the role of a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase homologue, TbMAPK5, in the differentiation of Trypanosoma brucei, we constructed a knockout in procyclic (insect) forms from a differentiation-competent (pleomorphic) stock. Two independent knockout clones proliferated normally in culture and were not essential for other life cycle stages in the fly. They were also able to infect immunosuppressed mice, but the peak parasitemia was 16-fold lower than that of the wild type. Differentiation of the proliferating long slender to the nonproliferating short stumpy bloodstream form is triggered by an autocrine factor, stumpy induction factor (SIF). The knockout differen

SUBMITTER: Domenicali Pfister D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1489280 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature