scholarly journals Persistence behavior in African trypanosomes during adipose tissue colonization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Trindade ◽  
Mariana De Niz ◽  
Mariana Sequeira ◽  
Tiago Bizarra-Rebelo ◽  
Fabio Bento ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Protein Synthesis ◽  
Adipose Tissue ◽  
Trypanosoma Brucei ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Proteome Analysis ◽  
Metabolic Adaptation ◽  
Adaptive Mechanism ◽  
African Trypanosomes ◽  
Persistence Behavior

Abstract Persistence is an important and ancient evolutionary adaptive mechanism used by several organisms to survive environmental changes. During its life cycle Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of sleeping sickness, inhabits several microenvironments, including the adipose tissue. Here we used a mathematical model to investigate how this large parasite reservoir contributes to the global parasite population dynamics. By modeling the total number of parasites and the proportion of transmissible forms in the blood and the adipose tissue during an infection, we estimated that adipose tissue parasites proliferate more slowly. Intravital microscopy of parasites stained with CellTraceTM Violet confirmed that adipose tissue forms divide twice slower than the blood counterparts. Consistent with a reduced growth, proteome analysis revealed that adipose tissue forms undergo a metabolic adaptation and downregulate proteins involved in translation. Quantification of protein synthesis using L-Homopropargylglycine confirmed that this rate is 24% lower in adipose tissue forms. We propose that in adipose tissue, T. brucei acquire a persistence-like behavior, which could contribute to disease chronicity and treatment failure.

scholarly journals Positional Dynamics and Glycosomal Recruitment of Developmental Regulators during Trypanosome Differentiation

mBio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Balázs Szöőr ◽  
Dorina V. Simon ◽  
Federico Rojas ◽  
Julie Young ◽  
Derrick R. Robinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Trypanosoma Brucei ◽  
Tyrosine Phosphatase ◽  
Tsetse Fly ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Metabolic Adaptation ◽  
Tsetse Flies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
African Trypanosomes ◽  
Sub Saharan

ABSTRACT Glycosomes are peroxisome-related organelles that compartmentalize the glycolytic enzymes in kinetoplastid parasites. These organelles are developmentally regulated in their number and composition, allowing metabolic adaptation to the parasite’s needs in the blood of mammalian hosts or within their arthropod vector. A protein phosphatase cascade regulates differentiation between parasite developmental forms, comprising a tyrosine phosphatase, Trypanosoma brucei PTP1 (TbPTP1), which dephosphorylates and inhibits a serine threonine phosphatase, TbPIP39, which promotes differentiation. When TbPTP1 is inactivated, TbPIP39 is activated and during differentiation becomes located in glycosomes. Here we have tracked TbPIP39 recruitment to glycosomes during differentiation from bloodstream “stumpy” forms to procyclic forms. Detailed microscopy and live-cell imaging during the synchronous transition between life cycle stages revealed that in stumpy forms, TbPIP39 is located at a periflagellar pocket site closely associated with TbVAP, which defines the flagellar pocket endoplasmic reticulum. TbPTP1 is also located at the same site in stumpy forms, as is REG9.1, a regulator of stumpy-enriched mRNAs. This site provides a molecular node for the interaction between TbPTP1 and TbPIP39. Within 30 min of the initiation of differentiation, TbPIP39 relocates to glycosomes, whereas TbPTP1 disperses to the cytosol. Overall, the study identifies a “stumpy regulatory nexus” (STuRN) that coordinates the molecular components of life cycle signaling and glycosomal development during transmission of Trypanosoma brucei. IMPORTANCE African trypanosomes are parasites of sub-Saharan Africa responsible for both human and animal disease. The parasites are transmitted by tsetse flies, and completion of their life cycle involves progression through several development steps. The initiation of differentiation between blood and tsetse fly forms is signaled by a phosphatase cascade, ultimately trafficked into peroxisome-related organelles called glycosomes that are unique to this group of organisms. Glycosomes undergo substantial remodeling of their composition and function during the differentiation step, but how this is regulated is not understood. Here we identify a cytological site where the signaling molecules controlling differentiation converge before the dispersal of one of them into glycosomes. In combination, the study provides the first insight into the spatial coordination of signaling pathway components in trypanosomes as they undergo cell-type differentiation.

scholarly journals Developmental competence and antigen switch frequency can be uncoupled in Trypanosoma brucei

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (45) ◽  
pp. 22774-22782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsty R. McWilliam ◽  
Alasdair Ivens ◽  
Liam J. Morrison ◽  
Monica R. Mugnier ◽  
Keith R. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Trypanosoma Brucei ◽  
Antigenic Variation ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Developmental Competence ◽  
Parasite Development ◽  
Mammalian Host ◽  
Mechanical Transmission ◽  
African Trypanosomes ◽  
Infection Dynamic ◽  
Developmental Capacity

African trypanosomes use an extreme form of antigenic variation to evade host immunity, involving the switching of expressed variant surface glycoproteins by a stochastic and parasite-intrinsic process. Parasite development in the mammalian host is another feature of the infection dynamic, with trypanosomes undergoing quorum sensing (QS)-dependent differentiation between proliferative slender forms and arrested, transmissible, stumpy forms. Longstanding experimental studies have suggested that the frequency of antigenic variation and transmissibility may be linked, antigen switching being higher in developmentally competent, fly-transmissible, parasites (“pleomorphs”) than in serially passaged “monomorphic” lines that cannot transmit through flies. Here, we have directly tested this tenet of the infection dynamic by using 2 experimental systems to reduce pleomorphism. Firstly, lines were generated that inducibly lose developmental capacity through RNAi-mediated silencing of the QS signaling machinery (“inducible monomorphs”). Secondly, de novo lines were derived that have lost the capacity for stumpy formation by serial passage (“selected monomorphs”) and analyzed for their antigenic variation in comparison to isogenic preselected populations. Analysis of both inducible and selected monomorphs has established that antigen switch frequency and developmental capacity are independently selected traits. This generates the potential for diverse infection dynamics in different parasite populations where the rate of antigenic switching and transmission competence are uncoupled. Further, this may support the evolution, maintenance, and spread of important trypanosome variants such as Trypanosoma brucei evansi that exploit mechanical transmission.

METABOLISM IN ADIPOSE TISSUE AND MUSCLE OF THE YOUNG PIG

1990 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. ADEOLA ◽  
B. W. McBRIDE ◽  
R. O. BALL ◽  
L. G. YOUNG
Keyword(s):  
Skeletal Muscle ◽  
Protein Synthesis ◽  
Adipose Tissue ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Adenosine Deaminase ◽  
Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue ◽  
Muscle Metabolism ◽  
Acetate Incorporation ◽  
Glycerol Release ◽  
Subcutaneous Adipose

Subcutaneous adipose tissue and intercostal and sartorius muscles from five barrows and five gilts at 20 kg liveweight were used to study lipogenesis, lipolysis, Na+, K+-ATPase-dependent respiration and protein synthesis. Lipogenesis rate measured by 14C-acetate incorporation into lipid was similar between barrows and gilts; and 100 μg insulin per mL enhanced (P < 0.1) subcutaneous adipose tissue lipogenesis by 74%. Lipolysis rate quantitated by glycerol release was similar between barrows and gilts (3546 and 4160 nmol g−1 2 h−1). Adenosine deaminase and norepinephrine together enhanced adipose tissue lipolytic response by 102%. Fractional and absolute rates of protein synthesis were similar between barrows and gilts (3.24 and 3.69% d−1; 6.01 and 6.06 mg g−1 d−1); and between intercostal and sartorius muscles. Barrows had lower Na+, K+-ATPase-dependent respiration than gilts and the maintenance of Na+ and K+ transmembrane ionic gradient in the muscle preparations accounted for 23–26% of total respiration. Key words: Pigs, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, metabolism

Cytosolic and mitochondrial Hsp90 in cytokinesis, mitochondrial DNA replication, and drug action in Trypanosoma brucei

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten J. Meyer ◽  
Theresa A. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dna ◽  
Trypanosoma Brucei ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Heat Shock Protein 90 ◽  
Cell Cycle Regulators ◽  
Hsp90 Inhibitors ◽  
African Trypanosomes ◽  
Hsp90 Activity

Trypanosoma brucei subspecies cause African sleeping sickness in humans, an infection that is commonly fatal if not treated, and available therapies are limited. Previous studies have shown that heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) inhibitors have potent and vivid activity against bloodstream form trypanosomes. Hsp90s are phylogenetically conserved and essential catalysts that function at the crux of cell biology, where they ensure the proper folding of proteins and their assembly into multicomponent complexes. To assess the specificity of Hsp90 inhibitors and further define the role of Hsp90s in African trypanosomes, we used RNAi to knockdown cytosolic and mitochondrial Hsp90s (HSP83 and HSP84, respectively). Loss of either protein led to cell death but the phenotypes were distinctly different. Depletion of cytosolic HSP83 closely mimicked the consequences of chemically depleting Hsp90 activity with inhibitor 17-AAG. In these cells cytokinesis was severely disrupted and segregation of the kinetoplast (the massive mitochondrial DNA structure unique to this family of eukaryotic pathogens) was impaired, leading to cells with abnormal kDNA structures. Quite differently, knockdown of mitochondrial HSP84 did not impair cytokinesis but halted the initiation of new kDNA synthesis, generating cells without kDNA. These findings highlight the central role for Hsp90s in chaperoning cell cycle regulators in trypanosomes, reveal their unique function in kinetoplast replication, and reinforce their specificity and value as drug targets.

scholarly journals In Vitro Generation of Human High-Density-Lipoprotein-Resistant Trypanosoma brucei brucei

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 1276-1286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara D. Faulkner ◽  
Monika W. Oli ◽  
Rudo Kieft ◽  
Laura Cotlin ◽  
Justin Widener ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Density Lipoprotein ◽  
Trypanosoma Brucei ◽  
Density Lipoprotein ◽  
High Density ◽  
Surface Glycoprotein ◽  
Trypanosoma Brucei Brucei ◽  
African Trypanosomes ◽  
Expression Site ◽  
Human High Density Lipoprotein

ABSTRACT The host range of African trypanosomes is influenced by innate protective molecules in the blood of primates. A subfraction of human high-density lipoprotein (HDL) containing apolipoprotein A-I, apolipoprotein L-I, and haptoglobin-related protein is toxic to Trypanosoma brucei brucei but not the human sleeping sickness parasite Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. It is thought that T. b. rhodesiense evolved from a T. b. brucei-like ancestor and expresses a defense protein that ablates the antitrypanosomal activity of human HDL. To directly investigate this possibility, we developed an in vitro selection to generate human HDL-resistant T. b. brucei. Here we show that conversion of T. b. brucei from human HDL sensitive to resistant correlates with changes in the expression of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) and abolished uptake of the cytotoxic human HDLs. Complete transcriptome analysis of the HDL-susceptible and -resistant trypanosomes confirmed that VSG switching had occurred but failed to reveal the expression of other genes specifically associated with human HDL resistance, including the serum resistance-associated gene (SRA) of T. b. rhodesiense. In addition, we found that while the original active expression site was still utilized, expression of three expression site-associated genes (ESAG) was altered in the HDL-resistant trypanosomes. These findings demonstrate that resistance to human HDLs can be acquired by T. b. brucei.

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