{"doi":"10.1128/mbio.01725-21","title":"Turnover of Variant Surface Glycoprotein in Trypanosoma brucei Is a Bimodal Process","abstract":"African trypanosomes, the protozoan agent of human African trypanosomaisis, avoid the host immune system by switching expression of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG). VSG is a long-lived protein that has long been thought to be turned over by hydrolysis of its glycolipid membrane anchor. Recent work demonstrating the shedding of VSG-containing extracellular vesicles has led us to reinvestigate the mode of VSG turnover. We found that VSG is shed in part by glycolipid hydrolysis but also in approximately equal part by direct shedding of protein with intact lipid anchors. Shedding of exocytic vesicles made a very minor contribution to overall VSG turnover. These results indicate that VSG turnover is a bimodal process and significantly alter our understanding of the \"life cycle\" of this critical virulence factor.","journal":"mBio","year":2021,"id":188535,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":16,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9559,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":749688,"name":"Khan Umaer","orcid":"0000-0003-4348-6154","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":749689,"name":"Michael J. Cipriano","orcid":"0000-0001-8163-8812","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":749690,"name":"Peter J. Bush","orcid":"0000-0003-2201-3235","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":570827,"name":"Jacquelyn McDonald","orcid":"0000-0001-7486-3077","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":749691,"name":"Aakash Sur","orcid":"0000-0003-2946-0038","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":411893,"name":"Peter J. Myler","orcid":"0000-0002-0056-0513","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":749692,"name":"Terry Smith","orcid":"0000-0003-1994-2009","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":276053,"name":"Stephen L. Hajduk","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":451372,"name":"James D. Bangs","orcid":"0000-0001-7903-6521","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":451371,"name":"Paige Garrison","orcid":"0000-0001-9472-2239","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":46,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:49:10.350554Z","pmid":"34311578","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}