Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Emma BriggsORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
African trypanosomes proliferate as bloodstream forms (BSFs) and procyclic forms in the mammal and tsetse fly midgut, respectively. This allows them to colonise the host environment upon infection and ensure life cycle progression. Yet, understanding of the mechanisms that regulate and drive the cell replication cycle of these forms is limited. Using single-cell transcriptomics on unsynchronised cell populations, we have obtained high resolution cell cycle regulated (CCR) transcriptomes of both procyclic and slender BSF Trypanosoma brucei without prior cell sorting or synchronisation. Additionally, we describe an efficient freeze-thawing protocol that allows single-cell transcriptomic analysis of cryopreserved T. brucei. Computational reconstruction of the cell cycle using periodic pseudotime inference allowed the dynamic expression patterns of cycling genes to be profiled for both life cycle forms. Comparative analyses identify a core cycling transcriptome highly conserved between forms, as well as several genes where transcript levels dynamics are form specific. Comparing transcript expression patterns with protein abundance revealed that the majority of genes with periodic cycling transcript and protein levels exhibit a relative delay between peak transcript and protein expression. This work reveals novel detail of the CCR transcriptomes of both forms, which are available for further interrogation via an interactive webtool.
Author(s): Briggs EM, Marques CA, Oldrieve GR, Hu J, Otto TD, Matthews KR
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: eLife
Year: 2023
Volume: 12
Print publication date: 25/05/2023
Online publication date: 11/05/2023
Acceptance date: 10/05/2023
Date deposited: 31/01/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2050-084X
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86325
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.86325
Data Access Statement: The transcriptome data generated in this study have been deposited in the EuropeanNucleotide Archive with project accession number PRJEB58781. The processed transcript count data and cell metadata generated in this study as well as all code and necessary intermediate files are available at Zenodo (10.5281/zenodo.7508131). BSF and PCF cell cycle transcriptomes can also explored using the interactive cell atlas (https://cellatlas-cxg.mvls.gla.ac.uk/Tbrucei.cellcycle.bsf/ and https://cellatlas-cxg.mvls.gla.ac.uk/Tbrucei.cellcycle.pcf/)
PubMed id: 37166108
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
