Abstract
Trypanosomatids cause many diseases in and on animals (including humans) and plants. Altogether, about 37 million people are infected with Trypanosoma brucei (African sleeping sickness), Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease) and Leishmania species (distinct forms of leishmaniasis worldwide). The class Kinetoplastea is divided into the subclasses Prokinetoplastina (order Prokinetoplastida) and Metakinetoplastina (orders Eubodonida, Parabodonida, Neobodonida and Trypanosomatida) [1,2]. The Prokinetoplastida, Eubodonida, Parabodonida and Neobodonida can be free-living, commensalic or parasitic; however, all members of theTrypanosomatida are parasitic. Although they seem like typical protists under the microscope the kinetoplastids have some unique features. In this review we will give an overview of the family Trypanosomatidae, with particular emphasis on some of its “peculiarities” (a single ramified mitochondrion; unusual mitochondrial DNA, the kinetoplast; a complex form of mitochondrial RNA editing; transcription of all protein-encoding genes polycistronically; trans-splicing of all mRNA transcripts; the glycolytic pathway within glycosomes; T. brucei variable surface glycoproteins and T. cruzi ability to escape from the phagocytic vacuoles), as well as the major diseases caused by members of this family. However, the present review does not cover all trypanosomatids; for example, the insect trypanosomatids are underrepresented here. On the other hand, reviews on this particular group of parasites have been written by experts in the field [3-12].
Highlights
Trypanosomatids are evolutionarily extremely successful, because they are found over nearly the entire planet and parasitize all groups of vertebrates, several species of invertebrates and even plants [1316], and because there is sound evidence that their ancestors date back to about 100 million years ago [2,17,18]
There are roughly a thousand described monoxenous trypanosomatids from insects, it is expected that hundreds of thousands of insect trypanosomatids will eventually be described, especially because new lines of evidence indicate that insects are the ancestral hosts for these parasites [2,5,15,19,20]
Some developmental stages of trypanosomatid protozoan parasites are well suited to cultivation in vitro; one such stage is the proliferative stage found in the gut of invertebrate hosts [33]
Summary
Trypanosomatids are evolutionarily extremely successful, because they are found over nearly the entire planet and parasitize all groups of vertebrates, several species of invertebrates (including many insects) and even plants [1316], and because there is sound evidence that their ancestors date back to about 100 million years ago [2,17,18]. The cell surfaces of all trypanosomatids are coated with GPI-anchored proteins and/or free GPI glycolipids, both of which form protective surface layers and/or mediate crucial host-parasite interactions [40,41].
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