Meiotic sex in Chagas disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi

Philipp Schwabl; Hideo Imamura; Frederik Van den Broeck; Jaime A. Costales; Jalil Maiguashca-Sánchez; Michael A. Miles; Bjorn Andersson; Mario J. Grijalva; Martin S. Llewellyn

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11771-z

Meiotic sex in Chagas disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi

Philipp Schwabl, Hideo Imamura, Frederik Van den Broeck, Jaime A. Costales, Jalil Maiguashca-Sánchez, Michael A. Miles, Bjorn Andersson, Mario J. Grijalva, Martin S. Llewellyn^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Genetic exchange enables parasites to rapidly transform disease phenotypes and exploit new host populations. Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasitic agent of Chagas disease and a public health concern throughout Latin America, has for decades been presumed to exchange genetic material rarely and without classic meiotic sex. We present compelling evidence from 45 genomes sequenced from southern Ecuador that T. cruzi in fact maintains truly sexual, panmictic groups that can occur alongside others that remain highly clonal after past hybridization events. These groups with divergent reproductive strategies appear genetically isolated despite possible co-occurrence in vectors and hosts. We propose biological explanations for the fine-scale disconnectivity we observe and discuss the epidemiological consequences of flexible reproductive modes. Our study reinvigorates the hunt for the site of genetic exchange in the T. cruzi life cycle, provides tools to define the genetic determinants of parasite virulence, and reforms longstanding theory on clonality in trypanosomatid parasites.

Original language	English
Article number	3972
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11771-z
State	Published - 1 Dec 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).

Funding

Special thanks to A. Vela, C. Cilveti, C. García, H. Darban, J. Galbraith and S. Ocaña-Mayorga for help with laboratory procedures. Thanks also to A. MacLeod, D. Streicker, J.-C. Dujardin, R. Biek and W. Weir for advice in data analysis and report. This study was funded by the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health (DMID/NIAID/ NIH grants AI077896-01 and AI105749-01A1); the NIH-Fogarty Global Infectious Disease Training Program (grant TW008261); the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (I13048, J13033, K13063 and L13225); a Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund secondment award 204820/Z/16/Z, a Medical Research council award MR/ M026353/1, and the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance. Work with T. cruzi was conducted under framework agreement No. MAE-DNB-CM-2015-0030 from the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
National Institutes of Health
AI077896-01, R15AI105749
TW008261
Wellcome Trust	204820/Z/16/Z, MR/ M026353/1
Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador	I13048, J13033, K13063, L13225

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abstract = "Genetic exchange enables parasites to rapidly transform disease phenotypes and exploit new host populations. Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasitic agent of Chagas disease and a public health concern throughout Latin America, has for decades been presumed to exchange genetic material rarely and without classic meiotic sex. We present compelling evidence from 45 genomes sequenced from southern Ecuador that T. cruzi in fact maintains truly sexual, panmictic groups that can occur alongside others that remain highly clonal after past hybridization events. These groups with divergent reproductive strategies appear genetically isolated despite possible co-occurrence in vectors and hosts. We propose biological explanations for the fine-scale disconnectivity we observe and discuss the epidemiological consequences of flexible reproductive modes. Our study reinvigorates the hunt for the site of genetic exchange in the T. cruzi life cycle, provides tools to define the genetic determinants of parasite virulence, and reforms longstanding theory on clonality in trypanosomatid parasites.",

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AU - Maiguashca-Sánchez, Jalil

AU - Miles, Michael A.

AU - Andersson, Bjorn

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AU - Llewellyn, Martin S.

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Meiotic sex in Chagas disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi

Abstract

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