Project description:The host range of African trypanosomes is influenced by innate protective molecules in the blood of primates. A subfraction of human high-density lipoprotein (HDL) containing apolipoprotein A-I, apolipoprotein L-I, and haptoglobin-related protein is toxic to Trypanosoma brucei brucei but not the human sleeping sickness parasite Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. It is thought that T. b. rhodesiense evolved from a T. b. brucei-like ancestor and expresses a defense protein that ablates the antitrypanosomal activity of human HDL. To directly investigate this possibility, we developed an in vitro selection to generate human HDL-resistant T. b. brucei. Here we show that conversion of T. b. brucei from human HDL sensitive to resistant correlates with changes in the expression of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) and abolished uptake of the cytotoxic human HDLs. Complete transcriptome analysis of the HDL-susceptible and -resistant trypanosomes confirmed that VSG switching had occurred but failed to reveal the expression of other genes specifically associated with human HDL resistance, including the serum resistance-associated gene (SRA) of T. b. rhodesiense. In addition, we found that while the original active expression site was still utilized, expression of three expression site-associated genes (ESAG) was altered in the HDL-resistant trypanosomes. These findings demonstrate that resistance to human HDLs can be acquired by T. b. brucei. Keywords: Trypanosoma, VSG, antigenic switching, HDL-resistance
Project description:The host range of African trypanosomes is influenced by innate protective molecules in the blood of primates. A subfraction of human high-density lipoprotein (HDL) containing apolipoprotein A-I, apolipoprotein L-I, and haptoglobin-related protein is toxic to Trypanosoma brucei brucei but not the human sleeping sickness parasite Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. It is thought that T. b. rhodesiense evolved from a T. b. brucei-like ancestor and expresses a defense protein that ablates the antitrypanosomal activity of human HDL. To directly investigate this possibility, we developed an in vitro selection to generate human HDL-resistant T. b. brucei. Here we show that conversion of T. b. brucei from human HDL sensitive to resistant correlates with changes in the expression of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) and abolished uptake of the cytotoxic human HDLs. Complete transcriptome analysis of the HDL-susceptible and -resistant trypanosomes confirmed that VSG switching had occurred but failed to reveal the expression of other genes specifically associated with human HDL resistance, including the serum resistance-associated gene (SRA) of T. b. rhodesiense. In addition, we found that while the original active expression site was still utilized, expression of three expression site-associated genes (ESAG) was altered in the HDL-resistant trypanosomes. These findings demonstrate that resistance to human HDLs can be acquired by T. b. brucei. Keywords: Trypanosoma, VSG, antigenic switching, HDL-resistance Bloodstream stages of the Lister strain 427 T. b. brucei (MiTat 1.2), expressing VSG221, were used in these studies. Cells were cultured in HMI-9 medium with the addition of heat inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS) (10%) and Serum Plus (10%). T. b. brucei 427-221 is an antigenically stable line and contains a single copy of the vsg221 gene within the 221 expression site (221ES). At a cell density of approximately 1,000,000 cells/ml, T. b. brucei 427-221 were exposed to various amounts of human HDLs for 24 h in a 6 well plate. Surviving trypanosomes were counted using a hemocytometer then diluted into fresh HMI-9 medium and allowed to recover for 5-14 days. Once the cells had grown to a density of approximately 1,000,000 cells/ml, they were once again incubated with human HDLs. Each round of selection was performed with increasing concentrations of human HDLs and freezer stocks were prepared for each surviving population. Over nine months we conducted eight rounds of human HDL selection, resulting in a population of T. b. brucei that survived incubation with 800 μl of human HDLs (160 lytic U).
Project description:Chromatin immunoprecipitation of genomic loci in Trypanosoma brucei where histone variant H3.V is deposited. This was achieved by deletion of one H3.V allele and N-terminal tagging of the second H3.V allele with a Ty1 tag. During the ChIP experiment, the DNA was digested with MNase to obtain mononucleosomes. Nucleosomes containing H3.V were pulled down by using a BB2 anti-Ty1 antibody. Cross links are reversed and mononucleosomal DNA is purified and prepared for Illumina sequencing.
Project description:The African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei is a unicellular eukaryote, which relies on a protective Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) coat for survival in the mammalian host. A single trypanosome has >2000 VSG genes and pseudogenes of which only one is expressed from one of ~15 telomeric bloodstream form expression sites (BESs). Infectious metacyclic trypanosomes present within the tsetse fly vector also express VSG from a separate set of telomeric metacyclic ESs (MESs). All MESs are silenced in bloodstream form T. brucei. As very little is known about how this is mediated, we performed a whole genome RNAi library screen to identify MES repressors. This allowed us to identify a novel SAP domain containing DNA binding protein which we called TbSAP. TbSAP is enriched at the nuclear periphery and binds both MESs and BESs. Knockdown of TbSAP in bloodstream form trypanosomes did not result in cells becoming more ‘metacyclic’-like. Instead, there was extensive global upregulation of transcripts including MES VSGs, VSGs within the silent VSG arrays as well as genes immediately downstream of BES promoters. TbSAP therefore appears to be a novel architectural chromatin protein playing an important role in silencing the extensive VSG repertoire of bloodstream form T. brucei.
Project description:Antigenic variation is employed by many pathogens to evade the host immune response, and Trypanosoma brucei has evolved a complex system to achieve this phenotype, involving sequential use of variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) genes encoded from a large repertoire of ~2,000 alleles. T. brucei express multiple, sometimes closely related, VSGs in a population at any one time, and the ability to resolve and analyse this diversity has been limited. We applied long read sequencing (PacBio) to VSG amplicons generated from blood extracted from batches of mice sacrificed at time points (days 3, 6, 10 and 12) post-infection with T. brucei TREU927. The data showed that long read sequencing is reliable for resolving allelic differences between VSGs, and demonstrated that there is significant expressed diversity (449 VSGs detected across 20 mice) and across the timeframe of study there was a clear semi-reproducible pattern of expressed diversity (median of 27 VSGs per sample at day 3 post infection (p.i.), 82 VSGs at day 6 p.i., 187 VSGs at day 10 p.i. and 132 VSGs by day 12 p.i.). There was also consistent detection of one VSG dominating expression across replicates at days 3 and 6, and emergence of a second dominant VSG across replicates by day 12, providing further evidence for hierarchical VSG expression, a conclusion that was confirmed by the novel application of diversity analysis to VSG expression. Our results indicate that long read analysis is a reliable tool for resolving diverse allele expression profiles, and provides novel insights into the complexity and nature of VSG expression in trypanosomes, revealing significantly higher diversity than previously shown and identifying mosaic gene formation unprecedentedly early during the infection process.
Project description:Trypanosoma brucei, a member of the Excavates supergroup, falls in an evolutionarily ancient branch of eukaryotes. We have mapped nucleosome positions in T. brucei and identified a map that differs from that of other eukaryotes in several important ways. Unlike in other eukaryotes, the RNA polymerase II initiation regions in T. brucei do not exhibit pronounced nucleosome depletion, and show little evidence for defined -1 and +1 nucleosomes. In contrast, a well-positioned nucleosome is present directly on the splice acceptor sites within the polycistronic transcription units. The RNA polyadenylation sites were depleted of nucleosomes, with a single well-positioned nucleosome present immediately downstream of the predicted sites. The regions flanking the silent Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) gene arrays showed extensive arrays of well-positioned nucleosomes, which may act to repress cryptic transcription initiation. The silent VSG genes themselves exhibited a less regular nucleosomal pattern in both bloodstream and procyclic form trypanosomes. The DNA replication origins, when present within arrays of silent VSG genes, displayed a defined nucleosomal organization compared with replication origins in other chromosomal core regions. Our results indicate that some organizational features of chromatin are evolutionarily ancient, and may already have been present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor.