“Towards understanding life cycle of Trypanosoma brucei”

Trypanosoma brucei is a unicellular eukaryotic parasite of mammals causing sleeping sickness in humans. T. brucei is transmitted by the tsetse fly. In the fly trypanosomes migrate from the gut to salivary glands, which is associated with a defined sequence of changes to cells of the parasite. We have established an in vitro approach enabling us for the first time to study these life cycle transitions during initial stages of trypanosome migration. Hence, we were able to describe associated changes to trypanosome morphology, cell cycle, motility as well as to its proteome and metabolome. This revealed that the initial life cycle transitions represent a continuous plastic process rather than a sequence of irreversible decisions. Furthermore, it let to identification of a molecule in the trypanosome environment, which is critical for triggering cell cycle arrest during these transitions. Thus, our work opens new possibilities to understand complex biology of this important human parasite.