SINCE 1967 we have isolated 6 strains of Trypanosoma (Trypanozoon) brucei subspecies from various hosts in Illubabor Province, Ethiopia, where human trypanosomiasis was first recognised in 1967 and where it became epidemic in 1968-1970 (McConnell Hutchinson & Baker, 1970; Hutchinson, 1971). Some but not all of these isolations have been reported previously; all of those from mammals were made f...

Reverse genetics in Trypanosoma brucei is dependent on the tetracycline inducible system for the precise control over the expression of both genes and dsRNA. Another independent inducible system for trypanosomes would enable the control of the activities of two different genes in the same cell, providing greater experimental sophistication. Here, I describe the development of the vanillic acid ...

A number of hydroxamic acid derivatives which inhibit human histone deacetylases were investigated for efficacy against cultured bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei. Three out of the four classes tested displayed significant activity. The majority of compounds blocked parasite growth in the submicromolar range. The most potent was a member of the sulphonepiperazine series with an IC(50) of 34nM...

Trypanothione synthetase (TryS) is essential for the survival of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei, which causes human African trypanosomiasis. It is one of only a handful of chemically validated targets for T. brucei in vivo. To identify novel inhibitors of TbTryS we screened our in-house diverse compound library that contains 62,000 compounds. This resulted in the identification of si...

The atypical small G protein Rab-like 5 has been shown to traffic in sensory cilia of Caenorhabditis elegans, where it participates in signalling processes but not in cilia construction. In this report, we demonstrate that RABL5 colocalises with intraflagellar transport (IFT) proteins at the basal body and in the flagellum matrix of the protist Trypanosoma brucei. RABL5 fused to GFP exhibits an...

The cytoskeleton of the parasitic hemoflagellate Trypanosoma brucei brucei essentially consists of two microtubule-based structures: a subpellicular layer of singlet microtubules, which are in close contact with the cell membrane, and the flagellar axoneme. In addition, the cells contain a small pool of soluble tubulin. Two-dimensional gel electrophoretic analysis of the tubulins present in the...

We describe here the stable transformation of Trypanosoma brucei using a new selectable marker for kinetoplastid protozoa, the Sh ble, or phleomycin, resistance gene. A plasmid containing this gene targeted to the tubulin gene locus by homologous sequences was introduced into procyclic trypanosomes by electroporation and cells selected for antibiotic resistance. Southern analysis of stable tran...

African trypanosomes have plastic genomes with extensive variability at the chromosome ends. The genes encoding the expressed major surface protein of the infective bloodstream form stages of Trypanosoma brucei and are located at telomeres. These telomeric expression-site transcription units are turning out to be surprisingly polymorphic in structure and sequence.

This report describes a method for growing both bloodstream- and procyclic-form Trypanosoma brucei as colonies on agarose plates. Procyclic colonies, which took 2 weeks to develop, grew with approximately 17% plating efficiency on SDM-79/0.65% agarose supplemented with 20% (vol/vol) conditioned medium. Bloodstream forms were adapted to in vitro growth in liquid HMI-9 medium and then spread on H...

CATT/Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, a direct card agglutination test designed for field surveys on human African trypanosomosis, is currently used with freshly collected heparinized blood samples. When testing serum samples, it has been observed earlier that, at lower sample dilutions, a complement-mediated inhibition phenomenon may cause false negative test results. This can be avoided by addin...