|
|
Article: Parasite can't survive without its tail.(Trypanosoma brucei)(Brief article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- April 8, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The parasite that causes African sleeping sickness can't survive in the mammalian bloodstream without its tail, scientists report. The finding could lead to novel ways to fight this disease.
Trypanosoma brucei has a two-part life cycle in which it inhabits the tsetse fly and then a mammal. Although the parasite takes on slightly different forms in these two hosts, both forms have along, whiplike tail called a flagellum.
While investigating how T. brucei's flagellum operates, microbiologist Keith Gull of the University of Oxford in England and his colleagues made an exhaustive catalog of the structure's 380 proteins. Then, to determine the proteins' ...