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Stick With It
22 April 2017

Stick With It

This troublesome creature is Trypanosoma brucei – a tiny single-celled parasite. Transmitted by tsetse flies in sub-Saharan Africa, trypanosomes cause an unpleasant disease called sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis), which can be fatal if left untreated. The long pink string in this false-coloured image highlights the organism’s long, whip-like tail or flagellum. This has three uses: enabling the bug to move around; sensing the environment around it; and recognising and attaching to host cells so it can infect them. It also helps to maintain the shape of the parasite’s body, and plays a role in helping it multiply inside its host. Because the flagellum is so important to a trypanosome’s lifestyle and infectious ability, researchers are now working out ways to break the molecular connections that keep it attached to the parasite cell, with the hope of finding more effective ways to prevent or treat sleeping sickness in the future.

Written by Kat Arney

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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