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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Emma BriggsORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Tsetse‑transmitted Trypanosoma parasites infect a wide host range and cause both Human African Trypanosomiasis and Animal African Trypanosomosis. In rodent infections, T. brucei transitions from proliferative slender to tsetse‑transmissible stumpy forms only at high parasitaemia via a density‑dependent quorum‑sensing mechanism. However, chronic bovine infections occur at much lower parasitaemia, below the densities assumed to trigger differentiation. Using scRNA‑seq and microscopy, this study identifies mixed slender‑ and stumpy‑associated transcriptomes in cattle blood despite low parasitaemia, along with reduced division and shortened flagella indicative of differentiation. Comparisons with murine infections and in vitro culture reveal conserved slender/stumpy transcriptomic signatures with host‑specific differences, suggesting cryptic differentiation and challenging long‑standing assumptions about stumpy formation in natural hosts.
Author(s): Larcombe SD, Paxton E, Vrettou C, Steketee PC, Matthews KR, Morrison LJ, Briggs EM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nature Communications
Year: 2025
Volume: 16
Online publication date: 05/11/2025
Acceptance date: 25/09/2025
Date deposited: 08/04/2026
ISSN (electronic): 2041-1723
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64750-y
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64750-y
Data Access Statement: The scRNA-seq data generated in this study have been deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive database under accession code PRJEB66078. The processed scRNA-seq data are available at zenodo.org under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14515536. All other data generated in this study are provided in the Supplementary Information/Source data file. The in vitro and mouse derived scRNA-seq data used in this study are available in the European Nucleotide Archive database under accession codes PRJEB41744 and PRJEB60851, respectively, and as processed data at zenodo.org under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14515536 Source data are provided with this paper.
PubMed id: 41193429
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