Loosely coiled DNA helps trypanosomes make their escape
Monday, January 11, 2010 - 08:35
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- To escape the grip of the human immune system, Trypanosoma brucei, which causes African sleeping sickness, performs its acclaimed disappearing act. Every time the host`s immune cells get close to eliminating the infection, a small number of trypanosomes avoid detection by changing their surface ‘coat.` Now, after 30 years of contradictory and inconclusive findings, Rockefeller University researchers reveal that trypanosomes` ability to strategically coil their DNA is part of the mechanism by which they make their stealthy escape.