The insect vector for T. brucei is the tsetse
fly. The parasite lives in the midgut of the fly (procyclic form),
whereupon it migrates to the salivary glands for injection to the
mammalian host on biting. The parasite lives within the bloodstream
(bloodstream form) where it can reinfect the fly vector after biting.
Later during a T. brucei infection the parasite may migrate to
other areas of the host. A T. brucei infection may be transferred
human to human via bodily fluid exchange, primarily blood transfer.
There are three different sub-species of T. brucei, which
cause different variants of trypanosomiasis.
- T. brucei gambiense - Causes slow onset chronic
trypanosomiasis in humans. Most common in central and western Africa,
where humans are thought to be the primary reservoir.[1]
- T. brucei rhodesiense - Causes fast onset acute
trypanosomiasis in humans. Most common in southern and eastern Africa,
where game animals and livestock are thought to be the primary reservoir.[1]
- T. brucei brucei - Causes animal African trypanosomiasis, along with
several other species of trypanosoma.
T. b. brucei is not human infective due to its susceptibility to
lysis by human
apolipoprotein L1.[2]
However, as it shares many features with T. b. gambiense and T.
b. rhodesiense (such as antigenic
variation) it is used as a model for human infections in laboratory
and animal studies.
The cell structure
The structure of the
cell is fairly typical of
eukaryotes,
see
eukaryotic cell. All
major organelles are seen, including the
nucleus,
mitochondria,
endoplasmic reticulum,
Golgi apparatus etc. Unusual features include the single
large mitochondria with the
mitochondrial DNA structure known as the
kinetoplast,
and its association with the
basal
body of the
flagellum. The
cytoskeleton
is made up primarily of
microtubules. The cell surface of the
bloodstream form features a dense coat of variable surface glycoproteins
(VSGs) which is replaced by an equally dense coat of procyclins when
the parasite differentiates into the procylic in the tsetse fly midgut.
The six main morphologies of trypanosomatids. The different life cycle
stages of
Trypanosoma brucei fall into the promastigote and
epimastigote morphological categories.
Trypanosomatids show
specific cellular forms of which two are adopted by
Trypanosoma
brucei at different stages of the life cycle:
- Epimastigote - Basal body anterior of nucleus, with a long flagellum
attached along the cell body.
- Trypomastigote - Basal body posterior of nucleus, with a long
flagellum attached along the cell body.
These names are derived from the
Greek
mastig- meaning
whip, referring to the trypanosome's whip-like
flagellum.
T. brucei is found as a trypomastigote in the slender, stumpy,
procyclic and metacyclic forms. The procylic form differentiates to the
proliferitive epimastigote form in the salivary glands of the insect.
Unlike some other trypanosomatids, the promastigote and amastigote form
do not form part of the
T.brucei life cycle.
The genome
The
genome
of
T. brucei is made up of
[3]:
- 11 pairs of large chromosomes of 1 to 6 megabase pairs.
- 3-5 intermediate chromosomes of 200 to 500 kilobase pairs.
- Around 100 mini chromosomes of around 50 to 100 kilobase pairs.
These may be present in multiple copies per haploid genome.
The large chromosomes contain most
genes, while
the small chromosomes tend to carry genes involved in
antigenic
variation, including the VSG genes. The genome has been sequenced and
is available online
[1].
The mitochondrial genome is found condensed into the
kinetoplast,
an unusual feature unique to the
kinetoplastea class. It and the
basal
body of the
flagellum are strongly associated via a
cytoskeletal structure.
VSG surface coat
Main section: The
VSG coat
The surface of the trypanosome is covered by a dense coat of Variable
Surface Glycoprotein (VSG), which allows persistence of an infecting
trypanosome population in the host. See below.
The cytoskeleton
The
cytoskeleton is predominantly made up of
microtubules, forming a subpellicular corset.
The microtubules lie parallel to each other along the long axis of the
cell, with the number of microtubules at any point roughly proportional
to the circumference of the cell at that point. As the cell grows
(including for mitosis) additional microtubules grow between the
existing tubules, leading to semiconservative inheritance of the
cytoskeleton. The microtubules are orientated + at the posterior and -
at the anterior.
Microfilament and
intermediate filaments also play an
important role in the cytoskeleton, but these are generally overlooked.
Flagellar structure
Trypanosoma Brucei flagellar structure.
The trypanosome flagellum has two main structures. It is made up of a
typical flagellar axoneme which lies parallel to the paraflagellar rod,
a lattice structure of proteins unique to the
kinetoplastida,
euglenoids and
dinoflagellates.
The microtubules of the flagellar
axoneme
lie in the normal 9+2 arrangement, orientated with the + at the anterior
end and the - in the basal body. The a cytoskeletal structure extends
from the basal body to the kinetoplast. The flagellum is bound to the
cytoskeleton of the main cell body by four specialised microtubules,
which run parallel and in the same direction to the flagellar tubulin.
The flagellar function is twofold - locomotion via oscilations along
the attached flagellum and cell body, and attachment to the fly gut
during the procyclic phase.
The VSG coat
The surface of the trypanosome is covered by a dense coat of ~1x10
7
molecules of Variable Surface
Glycoprotein
(VSG).
[4]
This coat enables an infecting
T. brucei population to
persistently evade the host's
immune
system, allowing chronic infection. The two properties of the VSG
coat that allow immune evasion are:
- Shielding - the dense nature of the VSG coat prevents the immune
system of the mammalian host from accessing the plasma
membrane or any other invariant surface epitopes (such as ion channels, transporters, receptors etc.) of the parasite. The coat is
uniform, made up of millions of copies of the same molecule; therefore
the only parts of the trypanosome the immune system can 'see' are the N-terminal
loops of the VSG
that make up the coat.[5]
- Periodic antigenic variation - the VSG coat
undergoes frequent stochastic genetic modification - 'switching' -
allowing variants expressing a new VSG coat to escape the specific immune response raised
against the previous coat.
Antigenic variation
Sequencing
of the
T. brucei genome has revealed a huge
VSG gene archive,
made up of thousands of different
VSG genes. All but one of these are 'silent' VSGs,
as each trypanosome
expresses only one
VSG gene at a time. VSG is
highly
immunogenic, and an
immune response raised against a
specific VSG will rapidly kill trypanosomes expressing this
VSG.
This can also be observed
in vitro
by a
complement-mediated lysis assay.
However, with each
cell division there is a possibility that one
or both of the
progeny will switch expression to a silent
VSG
from the archive (see below). The frequency of such a switch has been
measured to be approximately 1:100.
[6]
This new VSG will likely not be recognised by the specific immune
responses raised against previously expressed VSGs. It takes several
days for an immune response against a specific to develop, giving
trypanosomes which have undergone VSG coat switching some time to
reproduce (and undergo further VSG coat switching events) unhindered.
Repetition of this process prevents extinction of the infecting
trypanosome population, allowing chronic persistence of parasites in the
host. The clinical effect of this cycle is successive 'waves' of
parasitaemia (trypanosomes in the blood).
[4]
VSG structure
VSG genes are hugely variable at the
sequence level. However, for them to fulfil their
shielding function, different VSGs have strongly conserved
structural features. VSGs are made up of a highly
variable
N terminal domain of around 300 to 350
amino acids,
and a more conserved
C terminal domain of around 100 amino acids. The C
terminal domain forms a structural bundle of four
alpha
helices, while the N terminal domain forms a 'halo' around the
helices. The
tertiary structure of
this halo is well conserved between different VSGs (in spite of wide
variation in amino acid sequence) allowing different VSGs to form the
physical barrier required to shield the trypanosome's surface.