Mechanical strategies to avoid interspecies competition in trypanosomes

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Markus Engstler
• Subject Area: Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491920625

Like all living beings, parasites must adapt optimally to an ecological niche. In the case of parasites, this niche is by definition hostile, as the host has developed defence strategies against the invader. Furthermore, the host is often infested by more than one parasite species, so that competition between parasites for the same infection niche can occur. Accordingly, avoiding interspecific competition is an important strategy for the evolutionary success of parasitism. We postulate that adaptations to the physics of the microenvironment play a crucial role in this process. African trypanosomes are unicellular parasites that extracellularly colonise the body fluids of their hosts. Interestingly, two closely related species, T. brucei and T. congolense, can colonise quite different niches in the same host, namely tissue interstitial spaces and the peripheral capillary system. Both parasite species differ only slightly in their body architecture, but significantly in their swimming behaviour and their ability to attach to host cells. In this project, we want to systematically investigate the physical properties and mechanical capabilities of both species. We will measure both the forces the parasites can exert on their environment and determine the forces they have to endure. We will study the parasites in a variety of microenvironments, from microfluidic models of blood flow, tissue fluid and lymph to elaborate skin and adipose tissue models. Using state-of-the-art techniques ranging from real-time deformation cytometry, lattice light sheet microscopy and holography to single-cell RNA-Seq and mesoscale simulations, we aim to measure the physical cross-talk of the parasites with their host niche with unprecedented accuracy. In doing so, we aim to make an important contribution to our understanding of the Physics of Parasitism.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2332: Physics of Parasitism