Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of bloodstream Trypanosoma brucei reconstructs cell cycle progression and developmental quorum sensing

Emma M. Briggs (), Federico Rojas, Richard McCulloch, Keith R. Matthews and Thomas D. Otto
Additional contact information
Emma M. Briggs: University of Edinburgh
Federico Rojas: University of Edinburgh
Richard McCulloch: University of Glasgow
Keith R. Matthews: University of Edinburgh
Thomas D. Otto: University of Glasgow

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Developmental steps in the trypanosome life-cycle involve transition between replicative and non-replicative forms specialised for survival in, and transmission between, mammalian and tsetse fly hosts. Here, using oligopeptide-induced differentiation in vitro, we model the progressive development of replicative ‘slender’ to transmissible ‘stumpy’ bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei and capture the transcriptomes of 8,599 parasites using single cell transcriptomics (scRNA-seq). Using this framework, we detail the relative order of biological events during asynchronous development, profile dynamic gene expression patterns and identify putative regulators. We additionally map the cell cycle of proliferating parasites and position stumpy cell-cycle exit at early G1 before progression to a distinct G0 state. A null mutant for one transiently elevated developmental regulator, ZC3H20 is further analysed by scRNA-seq, identifying its point of failure in the developmental atlas. This approach provides a paradigm for the dissection of differentiation events in parasites, relevant to diverse transitions in pathogen biology.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25607-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25607-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25607-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().