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Trypanosomatids are a group of kinetoplastid protozoa distinguished by having only a single flagellum. The name is derived from the Greek trypano (borer) and soma (body) because of the corkscrew-like motion of some trypanosomatid species. All members are exclusively parasitic, found primarily in insects.[1] A few genera have life-cycles involving a secondary host, which may be a vertebrate, invertebrate or plant. These include several species that cause major diseases in humans.[2]
The three major human diseases caused by trypanosomatids are; African trypanosomiasis (Sleeping Sickness, caused by Trypanosoma brucei and transmitted by Tsetse flies), South American trypanosomiasis (Chagas Disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted by triatomine bugs), and leishmaniasis (a set of trypanosomal diseases caused by various species of Leishmania transmitted by sandflies).
The family is known from fossils of the extinct genus Paleoleishmania preserved in Burmese amber dating to the Albian (100 mya) and Dominican amber from the Burdigalian (20-15 mya) of Hispaniola.[3] The genus Trypanosoma is also represented in Dominican amber in the extinct species Trypanosoma antiquus.[4]
Some trypanosomatids only occupy a single plants. Different species go through a range of different morphologies at different stages of the life cycle, most have at least two different morphologies. Typically the promastigote and epimastigote forms are found in insect hosts, trypomastigote forms in the mammalian bloodstream and amastigotes in intracellular environments.
A variety of different morphological forms appear in the life cycles of trypanosomatids, distinguished mainly by the position, length and the cell body attachment of the flagellum. The kinetoplast is found closely associated with the basal body at the base of the flagellum and all species of trypanosomatid have a single nucleus. Most of these morphologies can be found as a life cycle stage in all trypanosomatid genera however certain morphologies are particularly common in a particular genus. The various morphologies were originally named from the genus where the morphology was commonly found, although this terminology is now rarely used because of potential confusion between morphologies and genus. Modern terminology is derived from the Greek; "mastig", meaning whip (referring to the flagellum), and a prefix which indicates the location of the flagellum on the cell. For example, the amastigote (prefix "a-", meaning no flagellum) form is also known as the leishmanial form as all Leishmania have an amastigote life cycle stage.
Amastigote: False colour SEM micrograph of amastigote form Leishmania mexicana. The cell body is shown in orange and the flagellum is in red. 219 pixels/μm.
Promastigote: False colour SEM micrograph of promastigote form Leishmania mexicana. The cell body is shown in orange and the flagellum is in red. 119 pixels/μm.
Trypomastigote: False colour SEM micrograph of procyclic form Trypanosoma brucei. The cell body is shown in orange and the flagellum is in red. 84 pixels/μm.
Notable characteristics of trypanosomatids are the ability to perform
[6]
Silurian, Carboniferous, Paleogene, Neogene, Cambrian
Carboniferous, Devonian, Triassic, Paleogene, Neogene
Jurassic, Permian, Devonian, Paleogene, Neogene
Triassic, Permian, Cretaceous, Israel, Dinosaur
Brazil, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Euglenozoa
Skin, Leishmaniasis, Polymerase chain reaction, Jericho, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
Taxonomy (biology), Eukaryote, Euglenozoa, Protozoa, Bodo caudatus
Tanzania, Belgium, Nairobi, Human, Burundi