The African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei, which causes sleeping sickness in humans and Nagana disease in livestock, is spread via blood-sucking Tsetse flies. In the fly's intestine, the trypanosomes survive digestive and trypanocidal environments, proliferate, and translocate into the salivary gland, where they become infectious to the next mammalian host. Here, we show that for successful survival in Tsetse flies, the trypanosomes use trans-sialidase to transfer sialic acids that they cannot synthesize from host's glycoconjugates to the glycosylphosphatidylinositols (GPIs), which are abundantly expressed on their surface. Trypanosomes lacking sialic acids due to a defective generation of GPI-anchored trans-sialidase could not survive in the intestine, but regained the ability to survive when sialylated by means of soluble trans-sialidase. Thus, surface sialic acids appear to protect the parasites from the digestive and trypanocidal environments in the midgut of Tsetse flies.
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17 May 2004
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May 10 2004
Surface Sialic Acids Taken from the Host Allow Trypanosome Survival in Tsetse Fly Vectors
Kisaburo Nagamune,
Kisaburo Nagamune
1Department of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
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Alvaro Acosta-Serrano,
Alvaro Acosta-Serrano
2Division of Molecular Microbiology and Biological Chemistry, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, The University of Dundee, DD1 5EH Dundee, Scotland, UK
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Haruki Uemura,
Haruki Uemura
3Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
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Reto Brun,
Reto Brun
4Swiss Tropical Institute, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
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Christina Kunz-Renggli,
Christina Kunz-Renggli
4Swiss Tropical Institute, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
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Yusuke Maeda,
Yusuke Maeda
1Department of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
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Michael A.J. Ferguson,
Michael A.J. Ferguson
2Division of Molecular Microbiology and Biological Chemistry, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, The University of Dundee, DD1 5EH Dundee, Scotland, UK
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Taroh Kinoshita
Taroh Kinoshita
1Department of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
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Kisaburo Nagamune
1Department of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
Alvaro Acosta-Serrano
2Division of Molecular Microbiology and Biological Chemistry, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, The University of Dundee, DD1 5EH Dundee, Scotland, UK
Haruki Uemura
3Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
Reto Brun
4Swiss Tropical Institute, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
Christina Kunz-Renggli
4Swiss Tropical Institute, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
Yusuke Maeda
1Department of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
Michael A.J. Ferguson
2Division of Molecular Microbiology and Biological Chemistry, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, The University of Dundee, DD1 5EH Dundee, Scotland, UK
Taroh Kinoshita
1Department of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
Address correspondence to Taroh Kinoshita, Dept. of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, 3-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. Phone: 81-6-6879-8328; Fax: 81-6-6875-5233; email: [email protected]
The present address of A. Acosta-Serrano is Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology, Glasgow University, Glasgow G11 6NU, Scotland, UK.
Received:
April 17 2003
Accepted:
April 09 2004
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
The Rockefeller University Press
2004
J Exp Med (2004) 199 (10): 1445–1450.
Article history
Received:
April 17 2003
Accepted:
April 09 2004
Citation
Kisaburo Nagamune, Alvaro Acosta-Serrano, Haruki Uemura, Reto Brun, Christina Kunz-Renggli, Yusuke Maeda, Michael A.J. Ferguson, Taroh Kinoshita; Surface Sialic Acids Taken from the Host Allow Trypanosome Survival in Tsetse Fly Vectors . J Exp Med 17 May 2004; 199 (10): 1445–1450. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20030635
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