Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Aitcheson N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1618954 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Aitcheson Niall N Talbot Suzanne S Shapiro Jesse J Hughes Katie K Adkin Carl C Butt Thomas T Sheader Karen K Rudenko Gloria G
Molecular microbiology 20050901 6
Trypanosoma brucei relies on antigenic variation of its variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coat for survival. We show that VSG switching can be efficiently studied in vitro using VSG RNAi in place of an immune system to select for switch variants. Contrary to models predicting an instant switch after inhibition of VSG synthesis, switching was not induced by VSG RNAi and occurred at a rate of 10(-4) per division. We find a highly reproducible hierarchy of VSG activation, which appears to be capab ...[more]