Single-cell transcriptomics reveals expression profiles of Trypanosoma brucei sexual stages.

ABSTRACT: Early diverging lineages such as trypanosomes can provide clues to the evolution of sexual reproduction in eukaryotes. In Trypanosoma brucei, the pathogen that causes Human African Trypanosomiasis, sexual reproduction occurs in the salivary glands of the insect host, but analysis of the molecular signatures that define these sexual forms is complicated because they mingle with more numerous, mitotically-dividing developmental stages. We used single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNAseq) to profile 388 individual trypanosomes from midgut, proventriculus, and salivary glands of infected tsetse flies allowing us to identify tissue-specific cell types. Further investigation of salivary gland parasite transcriptomes revealed fine-scale changes in gene expression over a developmental progression from pu

SUBMITTER: Howick VM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8939820 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature