Figures
A network graph for variant surface glycoproteins (VSG) from Trypanosoma brucei.
The parasite Trypanosoma brucei uses antigenic variation to constantly replace the VSG on its plasma membrane. The network graph in the image was created using BLAST scores from pairwise comparisons of 968 T. b. brucei VSG protein sequences. The T. b. gambiense genome provides a pan-genome perspective on VSG diversity for the first time. Most VSG sequences are represented in both subspecies as orthologs (blue) or paralogs (green). A minority of VSG were not found in T. b. gambiense (red). The lack of phylogenetic structure among VSG contrasts with the more conservative VSG-related genes (yellow), which do not recombine and so cluster together. (See article by Jackson et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000658.)
Image Credit: Image created by Martin Aslett and Andrew Jackson using Biolayout Express 3D.
Citation: (2010) PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Issue Image | Vol. 4(4) April 2010. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 4(4): ev04.i04. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pntd.v04.i04
Published: April 27, 2010
Copyright: © 2010 Jackson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The parasite Trypanosoma brucei uses antigenic variation to constantly replace the VSG on its plasma membrane. The network graph in the image was created using BLAST scores from pairwise comparisons of 968 T. b. brucei VSG protein sequences. The T. b. gambiense genome provides a pan-genome perspective on VSG diversity for the first time. Most VSG sequences are represented in both subspecies as orthologs (blue) or paralogs (green). A minority of VSG were not found in T. b. gambiense (red). The lack of phylogenetic structure among VSG contrasts with the more conservative VSG-related genes (yellow), which do not recombine and so cluster together. (See article by Jackson et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000658.)
Image Credit: Image created by Martin Aslett and Andrew Jackson using Biolayout Express 3D.