Whole-Genome sequencing of Trypanosoma brucei reveals introgression between subspecies that is associated with virulence

Goodhead, IB ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3110-9442, Capewell, P, Bailey, J, Beament, T, Chance, M, Kay, S, Forrester, S, MacLeod, A, Taylor, M and Noyes, H 2013, 'Whole-Genome sequencing of Trypanosoma brucei reveals introgression between subspecies that is associated with virulence' , mBio, 4 (4) , e00197.

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Human African trypanosomiasis is caused by two subspecies of Trypanosoma brucei. Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense is found in East Africa and frequently causes acute disease, while Trypanosoma brucei gambiense is found in West Africa and is associated with chronic disease. Samples taken from a single focus of a Ugandan outbreak of T. b. rhodesiense in the 1980s were associated with either chronic or acute disease. We sequenced the whole genomes of two of these isolates, which showed that they are genetically distinct from each other. Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphism markers in a panel of 31 Ugandan isolates plus 32 controls revealed a mixture of East African and West African haplotypes, and some of these haplotypes were associated with the different virulence phenotypes. It has been shown recently that T. b. brucei and T. b. rhodesiense populations undergo genetic exchange in natural populations. Our analysis showed that these strains from the Ugandan epidemic were intermediate between the reference genome sequences of T. b. gambiense and T. b. brucei and contained haplotypes that were present in both subspecies. This suggests that the human-infective subspecies of T. brucei are not genetically isolated, and our data are consistent with genomic introgression between East African and West African T. b. brucei subspecies. This has implications for the control of the parasite, the spread of drug resistance, and understanding the variation in virulence and the emergence of human infectivity.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Subjects outside of the University Themes
Schools:	Schools > School of Environment and Life Sciences > Ecosystems and Environment Research Centre
Journal or Publication Title:	mBio
Publisher:	American Society for Microbiology
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	2150-7511
Funders:	Royal Society
Depositing User:	Dr Ian Goodhead
Date Deposited:	23 Sep 2015 16:59
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2022 17:06
URI:	http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/36285

Actions (login required)

Edit record (repository staff only)