The monosaccharide D-arabinopyranose has only been found in glycoconjugates of the trypanasomatid parasites Leishmania major, Endotrypanum schaudinni and Crithidia fasciculata. The donor molecule for the relevant arabinosyltransferases is known to be GDP-alpha-D-Arap in L. major and C. fasciculata, and the latter organism is being used to study the biosynthesis of GDP-alpha-D-Arap. In this stud...

Tsetse flies are well-known vectors of trypanosomes pathogenic for humans and livestock. For these strictly blood-feeding viviparous flies, the host blood should be only source nutrients liquids, as well any exogenous microorganisms colonising their intestine. Here we describe unexpected finding several monoxenous trypanosomatids in gut. In a total 564 individually examined Glossina (Austenia) ...

A technique for culturing two species of trypanosomatid flagellates on blood-agar plates is described. Herpetomonas megaseliae and Crithidia harmosa were grown as discrete clone colonies on plates prepared in sterile petri dishes with a medium derived from that of Tobie et al. (1950, J Parasitol 36: 48-54). Plates were inoculated with 0.01 ml flagellate suspension and the inoculum was spread ev...

Trypanothione [N1,N8-bis(glutathionyl)spermidine] is a unique metabolite found only in trypanosomatids, where it subsumes many of the functions of GSH in other organisms. In Crithidia fasciculata, two distinct ATP-dependent ligases, glutathionylspermidine synthetase (GspS; EC 6.3.1.8) and trypanothione synthetase (TryS; EC 6.3.1.9), are involved in the synthesis of trypanothione from GSH and sp...