Structure and function of the Trypanosoma brucei bilobe

Trypanosoma brucei is a unicellular protist and a major parasite of mammals. In humans, it is the causative agent of the neglected tropical disease human African trypanosomiasis (also known as Sleeping Sickness), while in livestock it is responsible for nagana. The cytoskeleton of T. brucei is essential both to its viability and to its pathogenesis, but is relatively poorly understood. The proposal here seeks to deepen our understanding of the cytoskeleton of this organism, with a particular focus on a novel structural component known as the bilobe. The bilobe was discovered in 2005, and despite concerted efforts its primary cellular function remains unclear. The focus of the work is TbMORN1, a protein exclusively localised to the bilobe and whose loss from the mammalian-infective bloodstream form of T. brucei is rapidly lethal. The project work outlined here will capitalise on a recent and highly successful screen for novel protein components of the bilobe to provide a full structural, functional, and cell biological appraisal of this object. The proposed experiments feature a combination of molecular cell biology, state-of-the-art biochemical techniques, and structural biology.

No additional funding sources recorded.