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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

High-throughput Gene Tagging in Trypanosoma brucei
Published on: August 12, 2016
Converting Blastocrithidia Nonstop, a Trypanosomatid With Non-Canonical Genetic Code, Into a Genetically-Tractable
Arnau Galan1, Natalya Kraeva1, Kristína Záhonová1,2,3,4
1Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czechia.
Abstract:
Blastocrithidia nonstop is a protist with a highly unusual nuclear genetic code, in which all three standard stop codons are reassigned to encode amino acids, with UAA also serving as a sole termination codon. In this study, we demonstrate that this parasitic flagellate is amenable to genetic manipulation, enabling gene ablation and protein tagging. Using preassembled Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes, we successfully disrupted and tagged the non-essential gene encoding catalase. These advances establish this single-celled eukaryote as a model organism for investigating the malleability and evolution of the genetic code in eukaryotes.
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