Turnover of Variant Surface Glycoprotein in Trypanosoma brucei Is Not Altered in Response to Specific Silencing

Abstract

African trypanosomes evade the host immune system by altering the expression of variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs) in a process called antigenic variation. VSG is essential, and when its synthesis is ablated by RNAi silencing, cells enter precytokinesis growth arrest as a means to maintain constant cell surface VSG levels.