Abstract
Trypanosomatids are protozoan parasites among which are the etiologic agents of various infectious diseases in humans, such as Trypanosoma cruzi (causative agent of Chagas disease), Trypanosoma brucei (causative agent of sleeping sickness), and species of the genus Leishmania (causative agents of leishmaniases). The cell cycle in these organisms presents a sequence of events conserved throughout evolution. However, these parasites also have unique characteristics that confer some peculiarities related to the cell cycle phases. This review compares general and peculiar aspects of the cell cycle in the replicative forms of trypanosomatids. Moreover, a brief discussion about the possible cross-talk between telomeres and the cell cycle is presented. Finally, we intend to open a discussion on how a profound understanding of the cell cycle would facilitate the search for potential targets for developing antiparasitic therapies that could help millions of people worldwide.
Arthur de Oliveira Passos, Luiz H. C. Assis, Yete G. Ferri and Vitor L. da Silva have contributed equally to this chapter.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Dr. Débora Andrade-Silva (São Paulo State University, Brazil) for her critical revision and valuable suggestions to improve the manuscript’s writing.
This work was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) under grants: 2018/04375-2 (MINC), and 2019/10753-2 and 2020/10277-3 (to MSdS). LHCA is a postdoctoral fellow from FAPESP (grant 2021/04253-7). AdOP, VLdS, and YGF are M.Sc. fellows from FAPESP (grants 2021/05861-0, 2020/16481-1, and 2020/16465-6, respectively).
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Passos, A.d.O., Assis, L.H.C., Ferri, Y.G., da Silva, V.L., da Silva, M.S., Cano, M.I.N. (2022). The Trypanosomatids Cell Cycle: A Brief Report. In: Wang, Z. (eds) Cell-Cycle Synchronization. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2579. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2736-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2736-5_2
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