Trypanosoma brucei metacyclic transcriptome. Trypanosoma brucei brucei TREU927

We used an in vitro system to obtain Trypanosoma brucei metacyclics and determined their mRNA repertoires by mRNA sequencing in comparison to non-infectious procyclic trypanosomes. We show that metacyclics are quiescent cells, and we propose that the transition to this quiescent state is a factor in the choice of a “minimalistic” metacyclic variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) expression site, because it requires fewer cellular resources for activation