RNA-binding proteins related to stress response and differentiation in protozoa

Figure 2 Physiological stresses and differentiation. The schematic representation shows the life cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi. This parasite alternates between two distinct intermediary hosts. The change to each host involves a temperature stress, either a heat shock (28 °C to 37 °C) during the passage from the invertebrate to the vertebrate or a cold shock (37 °C to 28 °C) when the parasite switches from the mammalian to the triatomine vector. Inside the hosts, nutritional and pH stresses are determinants for the differentiation from the non-replicative to the replicative forms (either epimastigotes in the insect or amastigotes in the mammal host) and from those to the infective trypomastigote forms.