A5031753677- Trypanosoma species research and implications
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Research on Leishmaniasis Studies
- Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Parasites and Host Interactions
- Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models
- Drug Transport and Resistance Mechanisms
- Parasitic Diseases Research and Treatment
- Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria
- Parasite Biology and Host Interactions
- Cancer therapeutics and mechanisms
- Calcium signaling and nucleotide metabolism
- Protein Structure and Dynamics
- RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
- Mosquito-borne diseases and control
- Neuroscience of respiration and sleep
- Immune Cell Function and Interaction
- Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
- Biochemical and Molecular Research
University of Lisbon
2009-2022
Google (United States)
2019
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes
2018
National Legal Medicine Institute
2018
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência
2009-2015
Trypanosoma brucei is an extracellular parasite that causes sleeping sickness. In mammalian hosts, trypanosomes are thought to exist in two major niches: early infection, they populate the blood; later, breach blood-brain barrier. Working with a well-established mouse model, we discovered adipose tissue constitutes third reservoir for T. brucei. Parasites from tissue, here termed forms (ATFs), can replicate and were capable of infecting naive animal. ATFs transcriptionally distinct...
The evolution of multiple antibiotic resistance is an increasing global problem. Resistance mutations are known to impair fitness, and the drugs depends both on their costs individually how they interact--epistasis. Information level epistasis between key importance understanding amongst deleterious alleles, a theoretical question, improving public health measures. Here we show that in antibiotic-free environment cost smaller than expected, signature pervasive positive among alleles confer...
Multidrug-resistant bacteria arise mostly by the accumulation of plasmids and chromosomal mutations. Typically, these resistant determinants are costly to bacterial cell. Yet, recently, it has been found that, in Escherichia coli cells, a mutation conferring resistance an antibiotic can be advantageous cell if another antibiotic-resistance is already present, phenomenon called sign epistasis. Here we study interaction between mutations conjugative (i.e., self-transmissible) find many cases...
The role of mutations in evolution depends upon the distribution their effects on fitness. This is likely to depend environment. Indeed genotype-by-environment interactions are key for process local adaptation and ecological specialization. An important trait bacterial antibiotic resistance, which presents a clear case change direction selection between environments with without antibiotics. Here, we study fitness mutations, conferring resistance Escherichia coli, benign stressful drugs. We...
When Trypanosoma brucei parasites, the causative agent of sleeping sickness, colonize adipose tissue, they rewire gene expression. Whether this adaptation affects population behavior and disease treatment remained unknown. By using a mathematical model, we estimate that tissue forms (ATFs) proliferates slower than blood parasites. Analysis ATFs proteome, measurement protein synthesis proliferation rates confirm divide on average every 12 h, instead 6 h in blood. Importantly, is heterogeneous...
Knowledge of the mutational parameters that affect evolution organisms is key importance in understanding several characteristics many natural populations, including recombination and mutation rates. In this study, we estimated rate mean effect spontaneous mutations fitness a mutator strain Escherichia coli review some estimation methods associated with accumulation (MA) experiments. We performed an MA experiment where followed 50 independent lines were subjected to repeated bottlenecks...
African trypanosomiasis is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei, transmitted between mammals bite of a tsetse. It has been recently shown that parasites accumulate in large numbers various organs and tissues, including mouse testis. Whether are protected from immune system male reproductive organ or can be through sexual route remains unknown. Here we show detected fine needle aspiration cytology mice, histopathological analysis revealed T. brucei accumulates stroma...
Adipose tissue is one of the major reservoirs Trypanosoma brucei parasites, causative agent sleeping sickness, a fatal disease in humans. In mice, gonadal adipose (AT) typically harbors 2–5 million while most solid organs show 10 to 100-fold fewer parasites. this study, we tested whether AT environment responds immunologically presence parasite. Transcriptome analysis T . infected revealed that upregulated host genes are involved inflammation and immune cell functions. Histochemistry flow...
Abstract Persistence is an important and ancient evolutionary adaptive mechanism used by several organisms to survive environmental changes. During its life cycle Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of sleeping sickness, inhabits microenvironments, including adipose tissue. Here we a mathematical model investigate how this large parasite reservoir contributes global population dynamics. By modeling total number parasites proportion transmissible forms in blood tissue during infection,...