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Abstract
Trypanosomes are important disease agents of humans, livestock and cold-blooded species, including fish. The cellular morphology of trypanosomes is central to their motility, adaptation to the host's environments and pathogenesis. However, visualizing the behaviour of trypanosomes resident in a live vertebrate host has remained unexplored. In this study, we describe an infection model of zebrafish (Danio rerio) with Trypanosoma carassii. By combining high spatio-temporal resolution microscopy with the transparency of live zebrafish, we describe in detail the swimming behaviour of trypanosomes in blood and tissues of a vertebrate host. Besides the conventional tumbling and directional swimming, T. carassii can change direction through a 'whip-like' motion or by swimming backward. Further, the posterior end can act as an anchoring site in vivo. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a vertebrate infection model that allows detailed imaging of trypanosome swimming behaviour in vivo in a natural host environment.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e48388 |
Journal | eLife |
Volume | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 24 Sept 2019 |
Keywords
- host-pathogen interaction
- infectious disease
- microbiology
- swimming behavior
- Trypanosoma carassii
- zebrafish
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Tackling sleeping sickness with zebra fish: video footage reveals a deadly parasite's strategy
5/12/19
2 Media contributions
Press/Media: Research › Professional
Projects
- 1 Finished
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FISHFORPHARMA: Training Network on Zebrafish Infection Models for Pharmaceutical Screens
1/01/12 → 31/12/15
Project: EU research project