A panel of phenotypically and genotypically diverse bioluminescent:fluorescent Trypanosoma cruzi strains as a resource for Chagas disease research Olmo Arévalo, Francisco Jayawardhana, Shiromani A. Khan, Archie C. Langston, Henry Fortes Francisco, Amanda L. Atherton, Richard I. Ward, Alex C. Taylor, Martin M. Kelly, John D. Lewis, Michael Chagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan parasite that displays considerable genetic diversity. Infections result in a range of pathological outcomes, and different strains can exhibit a wide spectrum of anti-parasitic drug tolerance. The genetic determinants of infectivity, virulence and therapeutic susceptibility remain largely unknown. As experimental tools to address these issues, we have generated a panel of bioluminescent: fluorescent parasite strains that cover the diversity of the T. cruzi species. These reporters allow spatio-temporal infection dynamics in murine models to be monitored in a non-invasive manner by in vivo imaging, provide a capability to detect rare infection foci at single-cell resolution, and represent a valuable resource for investigating virulence and host:parasite interactions at a mechanistic level. Importantly, these parasite reporter strains can also contribute to the Chagas disease drug screening cascade by ensuring that candidate compounds have pan-species in vivo activity prior to being advanced into clinical testing. The parasite strains described in this paper are available on request. 2024-07-22T09:33:06Z 2024-07-22T09:33:06Z 2024-05-31 journal article Olmo, F. et. al. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 18(5): e0012106. [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012106] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/93349 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012106 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional PLOS