Abstract
Trypanosomes are unicellular, flagellate protozoa responsible for some of the most widespread parasitic diseases of humans and domestic animals (Hoare 1972). In itself, this would explain the increasing popularity of trypanosomes as research objects. However, trypanosomes also have a number of intriguing attributes that are of scientific interest: (1) The mitochondrial DNA of trypanosomes is the most bizarre DNA in nature; it consists of a large network of catenated circles, usually called kinetoplast DNA (see Borst and Hoeijmakers 1979). (2) Trypanosome glycolysis is unique since it is organized in a separate organelle, the glycosome (see Opperdoes and Borst 1977). (3) Trypanosomes can completely suppress mitochondrial biogenesis (Hoare 1972), a property they share only with yeast. (4) Although trypanosomes are primitive eukaryotes with much less genetic complexity than that of Escherichia coli, they share some of the typical aspects of eukaryotic genome organization, i.e., simple sequence satellites and a large fraction...
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