Analysing the impact of sexual recombination on the segregation of virulence genes in African trypanosomes

Trypanosomes are responsible for both Human and Animal African trypanosomiasis, causing severe health and economic burdens across sub-Saharan Africa. The lifecycle of trypanosomes is shown in Figure 1. Trypanosomes are extracellular parasites – they frequently change expression of their variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs), encoded at their telomeres, which cover the surface of bloodstream parasites to evade host immune responses [1-2] (Figure 2).

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