Mechanisms Mediating Antigenic Variation in Trypanosoma brucei

Antigenic variation in Trypanosoma brucei is a highly sophisticated survival strategy involving switching between the transcription of one of an estimated thousand variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) genes. Switching involves either transcriptional control, resulting in switching between different VSG expression sites; or DNA rearrangement events slotting previously inactive VSG genes into an active VSG expression site. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in techniques allowing us to genetically modify infective bloodstream form trypanosomes. This is allowing us to reengineer VSG expression sites, and look at the effect on the mechanisms subsequently used for antigenic variation. We can now begin a dissection of a highly complicated survival strategy mediated by many different mechanisms operating simultaneously.