Variant antigen repertoires in Trypanosoma congolense populations and experimental infections can be profiled from deep sequence data using universal protein motifs.

ABSTRACT: African trypanosomes are vector-borne hemoparasites of humans and animals. In the mammal, parasites evade the immune response through antigenic variation. Periodic switching of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coat covering their cell surface allows sequential expansion of serologically distinct parasite clones. Trypanosome genomes contain many hundreds of VSG genes, subject to rapid changes in nucleotide sequence, copy number, and chromosomal position. Thus, analyzing, or even quantifying, VSG diversity over space and time presents an enormous challenge to conventional techniques. Indeed, previous population genomic studies have overlooked this vital aspect of pathogen biology for lack of analytical tools. Here we present a method for analyzing population-scale VSG diversity

SUBMITTER: Silva Pereira S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6120623 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature