The proteome and transcriptome of the infectious metacyclic form of Trypanosoma brucei define quiescent cells primed for mammalian invasion

What is it about?

We used an in vitro system to obtain Trypanosoma brucei metacyclics and determined their protein and mRNA repertoires by mass-spectrometry-based proteomics and mRNA sequencing in comparison to non-infectious procyclic trypanosomes. We show that metacyclics are quiescent cells, and we propose that the transition to this quiescent state is a factor in the choice of a “minimalistic” metacyclic variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) expression site, because it requires fewer cellular resources for activation.

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