Figures
70-bp repeats control antigen gene selection in Trypanosoma brucei.
African trypanosome parasites are densely coated in a single Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG - visualized here by immunofluorescence microscopy, DAPI staining are shown). While growing in the bloodstream of humans and other mammals, Trypanosoma brucei species evade the host immune response by switching from the expression of one VSG coat to another. This requires selection and activation of a single new VSG gene from a huge number of possible VSG variants encoded throughout the genome. In this study, we showed that selection of VSG donors from the genomic archive requires a specific repetitive DNA element and defined its critical features. See Hovel-Miner et al.
Image Credit: Mark Field, University of Cambridge
Citation: (2016) PLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 12(5) May 2016. PLoS Genet 12(5): ev12.i05. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pgen.v12.i05
Published: May 31, 2016
Copyright: © 2016 Mark Field. 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.
African trypanosome parasites are densely coated in a single Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG - visualized here by immunofluorescence microscopy, DAPI staining are shown). While growing in the bloodstream of humans and other mammals, Trypanosoma brucei species evade the host immune response by switching from the expression of one VSG coat to another. This requires selection and activation of a single new VSG gene from a huge number of possible VSG variants encoded throughout the genome. In this study, we showed that selection of VSG donors from the genomic archive requires a specific repetitive DNA element and defined its critical features. See Hovel-Miner et al.
Image Credit: Mark Field, University of Cambridge