Analyzing Flagellum Structure of Trypanosoma Brucei Using Electron Tomography Datasets from Electron Microscopy Data Bank

African trypanosomiasis is a vector-borne parasitic disease. The main parasite that causes the disease is Trypanosoma brucei, also known as T. brucei, which infects its hosts through the tsetse fly. Trypanosoma brucei has an important structure, the flagella. The parasite relies on the flagella for survival and movement, so studying the flagella structure in detail is essential to understanding its function. Therefore, we use electron microscopes for multi-angle observation and photography. We identified some important structures of flagella which aligned with previous literature including the 92+2 axoneme, and the paraflagellar rod (PFR), and we even captured some novel features including densities connecting the axoneme and PFR, densities that interconnect the microtubule, and densities that bridges the different zones of PFR. We also did literature reviews and proposed hypotheses about the functions of these structures. Our structural study could shed light on the inhibition of the flagella movement, thereby treating trypanosomiasis.