Salivary gland infection: a sex-linked recessive character in tsetse?

Male tsetse, when infected in the laboratory with trypanosomes of the subgenus Trypanozoon, usually produce greater salivary gland infection rates than females of the same species. We show that a single sex-linked gene model can be fitted to most recently published data for salivary gland infection rates in tsetse. The maturation of Trypanosoma congolense infections is shown to be independent of fly sex. The possible effects of genetic control of maturation of Trypanozoon infections in tsetse populations on the transmission of sleeping sickness are considered.