Evidence for diploidy and mating in trypanosomes

Abstract

The question of whether any sexual process takes place at some stage of the life cycle of the trypanosome has often been raised and crosses between different drug-resistant strains have provided no convincing answer. Multinucleate forms of trypanosomes have been observed by electron microscopy but their significance and origin remain obscure. As part of a study aimed at examining the speciation and genetics of the Trypanosoma brucei complex of trypanosomes, a series of isolates from a population of T.b. brucei have been screened for electrophoretic variation in 19 enzymes. The results of this survey, reported here, provide strong evidence that trypanosomes are diploid and undergo random mating and recombination.