Abstract
Trypanosomes are extracellular protozoan parasites that cause human and animal disease. Trypanosomes predominantly inhabit the blood, skin, and adipose tissue and are transmitted by the biting tsetse fly. Little is known of how tissue tropism is regulated or its importance for transmission and pathogenicity. This study investigates FLAM8, a trypanosome flagellar membrane protein of unknown function. The authors show that FLAM8 knockout mutants have normal parasitemia and can differentiate to the transmissible lifecycle stages. However, FLAM8 is required for the parasite to disseminate to the extravascular compartment of the skin, potentially a key point for transmission to new hosts. FLAM8 may therefore be an important player in parasite transmission. This study is of interest to parasitologists studying host–parasite interaction and to cell biologists studying cellular sensing.
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