Vector-borne Trypanosoma brucei parasites develop in artificial human skin and persist as skin tissue forms.

Transmission of Trypanosoma brucei by tsetse flies involves the deposition of the cell cycle-arrested metacyclic life cycle stage into mammalian skin at the site of the fly's bite. We introduce an advanced human skin equivalent and use tsetse flies to naturally infect the skin with trypanosomes. We detail the chronological order of the parasites' development in the skin by single-cell RNA sequencing and find a rapid activation of metacyclic trypanosomes and differentiation to proliferative parasites. Here we show that after the establishment of a proliferative population, the parasites enter a reversible quiescent state characterized by slow replication and a strongly reduced metabolism. We term these quiescent trypanosomes skin tissue forms, a parasite population that may play an important role in maintaining the infection over long time periods and in asymptomatic infected individuals.

Interaction of YAP with the Myb-MuvB (MMB) complex defines a transcriptional program to promote the proliferation of cardiomyocytes.

The Hippo signalling pathway and its central effector YAP regulate proliferation of cardiomyocytes and growth of the heart. Using genetic models in mice we show that the increased proliferation of embryonal and postnatal cardiomyocytes due to loss of the Hippo-signaling component SAV1 depends on the Myb-MuvB (MMB) complex. Similarly, proliferation of postnatal cardiomyocytes induced by constitutive active YAP requires MMB. Genome studies revealed that YAP and MMB regulate an overlapping set of cell cycle genes in cardiomyocytes. Protein-protein interaction studies in cell lines and with recombinant proteins showed that YAP binds directly to B-MYB, a subunit of MMB, in a manner dependent on the YAP WW domains and a PPXY motif in B-MYB. Disruption of the interaction by overexpression of the YAP binding domain of B-MYB strongly inhibits the proliferation of cardiomyocytes. Our results point to MMB as a critical downstream effector of YAP in the control of cardiomyocyte proliferation.