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Editorial
. 2016 Jun 21;113(25):6821-3.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1607008113. Epub 2016 Jun 10.

VSG overcomes an early barrier to survival of African trypanosomes in tsetse flies

Shaden Kamhawi  1 , Iliano V Coutinho-Abreu  2
Affiliations
Editorial

VSG overcomes an early barrier to survival of African trypanosomes in tsetse flies

Shaden Kamhawi et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
VSG-mediated disruption of the peritrophic matrix in tsetse flies. (A and B) Schematic representation of the anterior portion of the tsetse midgut depicting the cardia, midgut cells (enterocytes), and PM. The PM compartmentalizes the midgut lumen into an ectoperitrophic and an endoperitrophic space. (A) A functional PM (solid line) surrounding an uninfected bloodmeal. (B) A disrupted PM (dashed line) surrounding a trypanosome-infected bloodmeal. Cells of the cardia internalize VSG (yellow dot) made available by lysis of slender (SL) forms, or after shedding by stumpy (ST) forms as they differentiate into procyclics (PC) that cross the compromised PM. (C) Close-up of a cardia cell and an enterocyte depicting the specific uptake of VSG by cardia cells. VSG uptake leads to down-regulation of miR-275 that reduces expression of the Wingless (wg) and Hedgehog (hh) signaling pathways and the Iroquois/IRX family of transcription factors. This leads to a reduction in peritrophins and a disrupted PM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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References

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