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Tsetse fly, vector of the African trypanosome parasite that causes sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in livestock
Tsetse flies are blood feeding insects that live in sub-Saharan Africa. When feeding on a trypanosome-infected host, the ingested protozoan parasites enter the tsetse midgut which is the starting point of a complex developmental cycle along the fly's alimentary tract and mouthparts, ending in the salivary glands where the final metacyclic parasitic stage is formed, ready to infect a new host. The tsetse fly harbors a facultative bacterial symbiont, Sodalis glossinidius, that can be genetically modified to express trypanosome-interacting proteins that are able to modulate the tsetse fly's ability to transmit the parasite.
Image Credit: Luc Verhelst
Citation: (2022) PLoS Pathogens Issue Image | Vol. 18(3) March 2022. PLoS Pathog 18(3): ev18.i03. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.ppat.v18.i03
Published: March 31, 2022
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Tsetse flies are blood feeding insects that live in sub-Saharan Africa. When feeding on a trypanosome-infected host, the ingested protozoan parasites enter the tsetse midgut which is the starting point of a complex developmental cycle along the fly's alimentary tract and mouthparts, ending in the salivary glands where the final metacyclic parasitic stage is formed, ready to infect a new host. The tsetse fly harbors a facultative bacterial symbiont, Sodalis glossinidius, that can be genetically modified to express trypanosome-interacting proteins that are able to modulate the tsetse fly's ability to transmit the parasite.
Image Credit: Luc Verhelst