The establishment of variant surface glycoprotein monoallelic expression revealed by single-cell RNA-seq of Trypanosoma brucei in the tsetse fly salivary glands.

ABSTRACT: The long and complex Trypanosoma brucei development in the tsetse fly vector culminates when parasites gain mammalian infectivity in the salivary glands. A key step in this process is the establishment of monoallelic variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) expression and the formation of the VSG coat. The establishment of VSG monoallelic expression is complex and poorly understood, due to the multiple parasite stages present in the salivary glands. Therefore, we sought to further our understanding of this phenomenon by performing single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) on these trypanosome populations. We were able to capture the developmental program of trypanosomes in the salivary glands, identifying populations of epimastigote, gamete, pre-metacyclic and metacyclic cells. Our results show tha

SUBMITTER: Hutchinson S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8509897 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature