Journal
NATURE REVIEWS MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 12, Issue 8, Pages 575-584Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro3298
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Funding
- Walloon WELBIO excellence programme
- Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS)
- Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme of Belgian Science Policy
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Humans can survive bloodstream infection by African trypanosomes, owing to the activity of serum complexes that have efficient trypanosome-killing ability. The two trypanosome subspecies that are responsible for human sleeping sickness - Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Trypanosoma brucei gambiense - can evade this defence mechanism by expressing distinct resistance proteins. In turn, sequence variation in the gene that encodes the trypanosome-killing component in human serum has enabled populations in western Africa to restore resistance to T.b. rhodesiense, at the expense of the high probability of developing kidney sclerosis. These findings highlight the importance of resistance to trypanosomes in human evolution.
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