Oxidative Phosphorylation Is Required for Powering Motility and Development of the Sleeping Sickness Parasite Trypanosoma brucei in the Tsetse Fly Vector.

ABSTRACT: The single-celled parasite Trypanosoma brucei is transmitted by hematophagous tsetse flies. Life cycle progression from mammalian bloodstream form to tsetse midgut form and, subsequently, infective salivary gland form depends on complex developmental steps and migration within different fly tissues. As the parasite colonizes the glucose-poor insect midgut, ATP production is thought to depend on activation of mitochondrial amino acid catabolism via oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). This process involves respiratory chain complexes and F₁F_o-ATP synthase and requires protein subunits of these complexes that are encoded in the parasite's mitochondrial DNA (kDNA). Here, we show that progressive loss of kDNA-encoded functions correlates with a decreasing ability to initia

SUBMITTER: Dewar CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8749461 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature