Affiliations: 1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA.
Keywords:
Chagas disease, CRISPR/Cas9, gene knockout, gene tagging, gene knock-in, genome editing, trypanosomes.
Corresponding Author(s):
Noelia Lander, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA; noelia.lander@uc.edu
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of inter-est with the contents of this article. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessari-ly represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Please cite this article as:
Miguel A. Chiurillo and Noelia Lander (2021). The long and winding road of reverse genetics in Trypanosoma cruzi. Microbial Cell 8(9): 203-207. doi: 10.15698/mic2021.09.758
© 2021 Chiurillo and Lander. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
The long and winding road of reverse genetics in Trypanosoma cruzi
Authors:Miguel A. Chiurillo1 and Noelia Lander1
doi: 10.15698/mic2021.09.758
Volume 8, pp. 203 to 207, published 05/08/2021.
1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA.
Keywords:
Chagas disease, CRISPR/Cas9, gene knockout, gene tagging, gene knock-in, genome editing, trypanosomes.
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of inter-est with the contents of this article. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessari-ly represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Please cite this article as:
Miguel A. Chiurillo and Noelia Lander (2021). The long and winding road of reverse genetics in Trypanosoma cruzi. Microbial Cell 8(9): 203-207. doi: 10.15698/mic2021.09.758
© 2021 Chiurillo and Lander. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Trypanosomes are early divergent protists with distinctive features among eukaryotic cells. Together with Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma cruzi has been one of the most studied members of the group. This protozoan parasite is the causative agent of Chagas disease, a leading cause of heart disease in the Americas, for which there is no vaccine or satisfactory treatment available. Understanding T. cruzi biology is crucial to identify alternative targets for antiparasitic interventions. Genetic manipulation of T. cruzi has been historically challenging. However, the emergence of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has significantly improved the ability to generate genetically modified T. cruzi cell lines. Still, the system alone is not sufficient to answer all biologically relevant questions. In general, current genetic methods have limitations that should be overcome to advance in the study of this peculiar parasite. In this brief historic overview, we highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the molecular strategies that have been developed to genetically modify T. cruzi, emphasizing the future directions of the field.