Meiotic sex in Chagas disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 3972 - 14
• Main Authors: Schwabl, Philipp, Imamura, Hideo, Van den Broeck, Frederik, Costales, Jaime A., Maiguashca-Sánchez, Jalil, Miles, Michael A., Andersson, Bjorn, Grijalva, Mario J., Llewellyn, Martin S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 03-09-2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 45/23; 631/158/1469; 631/181/2474; 631/181/457; 631/326/417/2551; Animals; Chagas disease; Chagas Disease - parasitology; Chiroptera - parasitology; Ecuador; Epidemiology; Exchanging; Genetic engineering; Genetic Variation; Genetics, Population; Genome, Protozoan; Genomes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hybridization; Life cycles; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Meiosis; multidisciplinary; Parasites; Parasitic diseases; Phenotypes; Protozoa; Public health; Recombination, Genetic; Reproduction - genetics; Rodentia - parasitology; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sequence Analysis, DNA; Sex; Triatominae - parasitology; Trypanosoma cruzi; Trypanosoma cruzi - genetics; Vector-borne diseases; Vectors; Virulence; Ecuador
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11771-z

Genetic exchange enables parasites to rapidly transform disease phenotypes and exploit new host populations.
Trypanosoma cruzi
, the parasitic agent of Chagas disease and a public health concern throughout Latin America, has for decades been presumed to exchange genetic material rarely and without classic meiotic sex. We present compelling evidence from 45 genomes sequenced from southern Ecuador that
T. cruzi
in fact maintains truly sexual, panmictic groups that can occur alongside others that remain highly clonal after past hybridization events. These groups with divergent reproductive strategies appear genetically isolated despite possible co-occurrence in vectors and hosts. We propose biological explanations for the fine-scale disconnectivity we observe and discuss the epidemiological consequences of flexible reproductive modes. Our study reinvigorates the hunt for the site of genetic exchange in the
T. cruzi
life cycle, provides tools to define the genetic determinants of parasite virulence, and reforms longstanding theory on clonality in trypanosomatid parasites.
Here, Llewellyn and colleagues present evidence of meiotic sex in
Trypanosoma cruzi
, the causative agent of Chagas disease. These findings have implications for the epidemiology of the disease in endemic regions and challenge existing ideas that the parasites are strictly clonal.