Switching trypanosome coats: what's in the wardrobe?

Jesse E. Taylor; Gloria Rudenko

doi:10.1016/j.tig.2006.08.003

Switching trypanosome coats: what's in the wardrobe?

Jesse E. Taylor, Gloria Rudenko

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

142 Scopus citations

Abstract

The African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei is best known for its extraordinarily sophisticated antigenic variation of a protective variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coat. T. brucei has >1000 VSG genes and pseudogenes, of which one is transcribed at a time from one of multiple telomeric VSG expression sites. Switching the active VSG gene can involve DNA rearrangements replacing the old VSG with a new one, or alternatively transcriptional control. The astonishing revelation from the T. brucei genome sequence is that <7% of the sequenced VSGs seem to have fully functional coding regions. This preponderance of pseudogenes in the VSG gene repertoire will necessitate a rethink of how antigenic variation in African trypanosomes operates.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	614-620
Number of pages	7
Journal	Trends in Genetics
Volume	22
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2006.08.003
State	Published - Nov 2006
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Genetics

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10.1016/j.tig.2006.08.003

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title = "Switching trypanosome coats: what's in the wardrobe?",

abstract = "The African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei is best known for its extraordinarily sophisticated antigenic variation of a protective variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coat. T. brucei has >1000 VSG genes and pseudogenes, of which one is transcribed at a time from one of multiple telomeric VSG expression sites. Switching the active VSG gene can involve DNA rearrangements replacing the old VSG with a new one, or alternatively transcriptional control. The astonishing revelation from the T. brucei genome sequence is that <7% of the sequenced VSGs seem to have fully functional coding regions. This preponderance of pseudogenes in the VSG gene repertoire will necessitate a rethink of how antigenic variation in African trypanosomes operates.",

author = "Taylor, {Jesse E.} and Gloria Rudenko",

note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank Bill Wickstead, Keith Gull, Michael Ginger, Kate Harley, Mani Narayanan, Steve Terry, Matt Wand and Rosie Young for stimulating discussions and comments on the manuscript. G.R. is a Wellcome Senior Fellow in the Basic Biomedical Sciences. This research is funded by the Wellcome Trust.",

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AU - Rudenko, Gloria

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Switching trypanosome coats: what's in the wardrobe?

Abstract

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