Trypanosome infection establishment in the tsetse fly gut is influenced by microbiome-regulated host immune barriers.

ABSTRACT: Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) vector pathogenic African trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in domesticated animals. Additionally, tsetse harbors 3 maternally transmitted endosymbiotic bacteria that modulate their host's physiology. Tsetse is highly resistant to infection with trypanosomes, and this phenotype depends on multiple physiological factors at the time of challenge. These factors include host age, density of maternally-derived trypanolytic effector molecules present in the gut, and symbiont status during development. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms that result in tsetse's resistance to trypanosomes. We found that following parasite challenge, young susceptible tsetse present a highly attenuated immune response. In contrast, matu

SUBMITTER: Weiss BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3630092 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature