The life cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi. See text for details. 

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... the discovery of Trypanosoma cruzi as the parasite that causes Chagas disease, nearly a century ago, the details of the organism's life cycle have fascinated scientists. T. cruzi is a single-celled eukaryote with a complex life cycle alternating between reduviid bug vectors and vertebrate hosts. It is able to adapt via the process of cellular differentiation to replicate within the diverse environments represented of the insect's gut and host cell cytoplasm. These adaptive transformations take the form of coordinated changes in morphology, metabolism and cell cycle regulation. Different life cycle stages of T. cruzi show dramatically different protein and RNA profiles, which are the end result of unusual mechanisms for regulating gene expression. In recent years, new molecular techniques have been brought to bear on the life cycle dramatically increasing our knowledge of the strategies employed by the parasite to ensure its continued survival. The etiologic agent of the chronic and often fatal Chagas disease is the American trypanosome, Trypanosoma cruzi , a flagellated protozoan of the order Kinetoplastida. The survival of T. cruzi is dependent on the successful transmission between, and the colonization of, two radically different environments: the midgut of the reduviid bug vector and the cytoplasm of the mammalian host cell. As is true of all infections, interruption of the pathogen's life cycle will lead to eradication of the disease. Strategies for interrupting the life cycle include minimizing human contact with the insect vector by improving public housing, reducing or eliminating the vector population, or by manipulation of the vector population to make it refractory to T. cruzi infection. These strategies would ideally being employed in tandem, together with treatment of infected individuals using curative chemotherapy. In recent years, such strategies have proven effective in South America, dramatically reducing or eliminating natural infection in most areas. Overview of the T. cruzi life cycle : For the purpose of this discussion we will begin our descriptions of the parasite life cycle with the infection of a mammalian host by metacyclic trypomastigotes present in the excreta of the blood-feeding reduviid bug vector (Figure 1). These are introduced into the host by contamination of the insect bite wound or a variety of mucosal membranes. The non-dividing metacyclic form is able to invade a wide range of phagocytic and non- phagocytic nucleated cells, initially entering a membrane bound (parasitophorous) vacuole. Upon entry, the parasite begins to differentiate to the amastigote form and escapes the vacuole into the cell cytoplasm where the dramatic morphologic transformation, including flagellar involution, is completed. The amastigote re-enters the cell cycle and proliferates until the cell fills with these forms. At this point the amastigotes elongate, reacquiring their long flagella, differentiating to the slender trypomastigote forms via an intracellular epimastigote intermediate. Slender trypomastigotes escaping the cell can invade adjacent cells; alternatively, they can enter the blood and lymph and disseminate, in which case they may begin to differentiate extracellularly. Extracellular differentiation gives rise to the broad trypomastigotes and extracellular amastigotes. A mixture of these three forms may be present in the blood of infected individuals and can be taken up in the blood meal of a reduviid bug. In the bug midgut, remaining trypomastigotes differentiate into amastigotes. As a population, amastigotes first extend their flagella to become spheromastigotes, which then lengthen to become (mid- log) epimastigotes. These epimastigotes continue to elongate as nutrients from the blood meal are exhausted. Finally, after migration to the bug's hindgut, the elongate (late-log) epimastigotes attach to the waxy gut cuticle by their flagella and differentiate into infectious metacyclic trypomastigotes, completing the life cycle. T. cruzi has the classical features of a eukaryotic cell: membrane bound nucleus, plasma membrane, golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum. However, in common with other members of the Kinetoplastida, T. cruzi has several peculiar features, such as a single mitochondrion, the DNA of which lies within a single unit, suborganellar structure - the kinetoplast. The kinetoplast DNA is a linked (catenated) network of hundreds of circular molecules, the minicircles and maxicircles. T. cruzi also compartmentalizes glycolysis in membrane bound vesicles called glycosomes, stores minerals in structures known as acidocalcisomes and sequesters membranes in vesicles named reservosomes (see chapter by De Souza, this volume for detailed accounts of the cell biology of this organism). The cytoskeleton of T. cruzi is unusual, in that it is predominantly microtubular with no evidence of microfilament or intermediate filament systems. T. cruzi does not possess centrioles. The replicative stages undergo a "closed" mitosis, with a microtubule spindle arising from poorly defined structures in the nuclear membrane. The trypanosome's distinctive morphologies are dictated by a "pellicular" corset of microtubules which closely apposes the plasma membrane. T. cruzi possesses a single flagellum subtended by a basal body and probasal body which lie within the cell. The basal body is the trypanosome's only defined microtubule organizing center. The flagellum varies in length during the life cycle from over 20 μm to less than 2 μm. The flagellar motor is a ciliary axonemal complex, with the typical 9 + 2 configuration of parallel microtubules. Once the axoneme exits the cell body, it is appended to an unusual semi-crystalline structure called the paraflagellar rod. It is believed that this structure provides support to the flagellar axoneme, increasing its rigidity and playing an essential role in motility. The exterior flagellum is surrounded by a specialized membrane which is rich in sterols and sphingolipids and which contains proteins that do not diffuse into other domains of the surface membrane. Where the flagellum enters the cell there is a gap in the subpellicular corset, the junction between the pellicular plasma membrane and flagellar membrane at this point takes the form of an invagination known as the flagellar pocket. The majority of vesicular trafficking and nutrient uptake is believed to occur in this area and many receptors localize specifically to this region. A second, smaller invagination proximal to the flagellar pocket, the cytostome, has also been implicated in nutrient uptake. Metacyclic trypomastigotes are able to parasitize a wide range of nucleated mammalian cells. Invasion occurs by one of three distinct mechanisms (Figure 2). The parasite may enter a cell under pressure from its own motility (Figure 2A); this is evidenced by the fact that even lightly fixing cells does not prevent invasion. Nevertheless, this mechanism is thought to be the least important mechanism of invasion. The best-studied entry mechanism is lysosome dependent. In this case, T. cruzi organizes the microtubule cytoskeleton of the host cell in order to direct recruitment of lysosomes to the point of parasite ...