Transcriptional analyses of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense from infected mice and in vitro culture

ABSTRACT With the hypothesis that African trypanosomes could have in vivo specific genes for adaptation to host’s environment, the present study was conducted by using suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) technique to seek the highly expressed genes especially in host. A total of 328 clones from the in vivo SSH library and that of 160 clones from the in vitro SSH library were analyzed in order to determine their expression levels, but none of the above-mentioned genes showed differential expression. This indicates that no trypanosome genes could be differentially expressed either the in vivo or in vitro propagated trypanosomes. Alternatively, there might be limitation for detecting specifically expressed genes in African trypanosomes using this method, because of their polycistronic gene expression. Key Words : differential expression; infection; Trypanosoma brucei The development of axenic culture methods for both bloodstream form (BSF) and procyclic form (PCF) of African trypanosomes (Hirumi and Hirumi 1989; Hirumi and Hirumi 1991) has contributed to further investigation of African trypanosomes. However, this invention has given rise to a question of whether biological characteristics of