Affiliation:
1. Department of Cellular Biology, Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases (CTEGD), University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
Abstract
The parasite
Trypanosoma cruzi
is the etiological agent of Chagas disease and chronically infects upwards of 7 million people in the Americas. Current diagnostics and treatments remain grossly inadequate due, in part, to our general lack of understanding of this parasite’s basic biology. One aspect that has resisted detailed scrutiny is the mechanism employed by this parasite to extract nutrient resources from the radically different environments that it encounters as it transitions between its invertebrate and mammalian hosts. These parasites engulf food via a tubular invagination of its membrane, a strategy used by many protozoan species, but how this structure is formed or functions mechanistically remains a complete mystery. The significance of our research is in the identification of the mechanistic underpinnings of this feeding organelle that may bring to light new potential therapeutic targets to impede parasite feeding and thus halt the spread of this deadly human pathogen.
Funder
HHS | NIH | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology
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