Leishmania is a parasitic protozoan, a single-celled organism of the genus Leishmania that is responsible for the disease leishmaniasis. They are spread by sandflies of the genus Phlebotomus in the Old World, and of the genus Lutzomyia in the New World. At least 93 sandfly species are proven or probable vectors worldwide. Their primary hosts are vertebrates; Leishmania commonly infects hyraxes, canids, rodents, and humans.
Giardia is a genus of anaerobic flagellated protozoan parasites of the phylum Metamonada that colonise and reproduce in the small intestines of several vertebrates, causing the disease giardiasis. Their life cycle alternates between a swimming trophozoite and an infective, resistant cyst. Giardia were first described by the Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1681. The genus is named after French zoologist Alfred Mathieu Giard.
Giardia duodenalis, also known as Giardia intestinalis and Giardia lamblia, is a flagellated parasitic protozoan microorganism of the genus Giardia that colonizes the small intestine, causing a diarrheal condition known as giardiasis. The parasite attaches to the intestinal epithelium by an adhesive disc or sucker, and reproduces via binary fission. Giardiasis does not spread to other parts of the gastrointestinal tract, but remains confined to the lumen of the small intestine. The microorganism has an outer membrane that makes it possible to survive even when outside of its host, and which can render it tolerant to certain disinfectants. Giardia trophozoites are anaerobic, and absorb their nutrients from the intestinal lumen. If the organism is stained, its characteristic pattern resembles the familiar "smiley face" symbol.
In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist guest (symbiont). The guest is typically provided with nourishment and shelter. Examples include animals playing host to parasitic worms, cells harbouring pathogenic (disease-causing) viruses, or a bean plant hosting mutualistic (helpful) nitrogen-fixing bacteria. More specifically in botany, a host plant supplies food resources to micropredators, which have an evolutionarily stable relationship with their hosts similar to ectoparasitism. The host range is the collection of hosts that an organism can use as a partner.
Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, often termed "Ich", is a parasitic ciliate described by the French parasitologist Fouquet in 1876. Only one species is found in the genus which also gave name to the family. The name literally translates as "the fish louse with many children". The parasite can infect most freshwater fish species and, in contrast to many other parasites, shows low host specificity. It penetrates gill epithelia, skin and fins of the fish host and resides as a feeding stage inside the epidermis. It is visible as a white spot on the surface of the fish but, due to its internal microhabitat, it is a true endoparasite and not an ectoparasite.
Giardiasis is a parasitic disease caused by Giardia duodenalis. Infected individuals who experience symptoms may have diarrhoea, abdominal pain, and weight loss. Less common symptoms include vomiting and blood in the stool. Symptoms usually begin one to three weeks after exposure and, without treatment, may last two to six weeks or longer.
The diplomonads are a group of flagellates, most of which are parasitic. They include Giardia duodenalis, which causes giardiasis in humans. They are placed among the metamonads, and appear to be particularly close relatives of the retortamonads.
The metamonads are a large group of flagellate amitochondriate microscopic eukaryotes. Their composition is not entirely settled, but they include the retortamonads, diplomonads, and possibly the parabasalids and oxymonads as well. These four groups are all anaerobic, occurring mostly as symbiotes or parasites of animals, as is the case with Giardia lamblia which causes diarrhea in mammals.
The Oxymonads are a group of flagellated protists found exclusively in the intestines of animals, mostly termites and other wood-eating insects. Along with the similar parabasalid flagellates, they harbor the symbiotic bacteria that are responsible for breaking down cellulose. There is no evidence for presence of mitochondria in oxymonads and 3 species have been shown to completely lack any molecular markers of mitochondria.
A mitosome is a mitochondrion-related organelle (MRO) found in a variety of parasitic unicellular eukaryotes, such as members of the supergroup Excavata. The mitosome was first discovered in 1999 in Entamoeba histolytica, an intestinal parasite of humans, and mitosomes have also been identified in several species of Microsporidia and in Giardia intestinalis.
In genetics, a selective sweep is the process through which a new beneficial mutation that increases its frequency and becomes fixed in the population leads to the reduction or elimination of genetic variation among nucleotide sequences that are near the mutation. In selective sweep, positive selection causes the new mutation to reach fixation so quickly that linked alleles can "hitchhike" and also become fixed.
Antigenic variation or antigenic alteration refers to the mechanism by which an infectious agent such as a protozoan, bacterium or virus alters the proteins or carbohydrates on its surface and thus avoids a host immune response, making it one of the mechanisms of antigenic escape. It is related to phase variation. Antigenic variation not only enables the pathogen to avoid the immune response in its current host, but also allows re-infection of previously infected hosts. Immunity to re-infection is based on recognition of the antigens carried by the pathogen, which are "remembered" by the acquired immune response. If the pathogen's dominant antigen can be altered, the pathogen can then evade the host's acquired immune system. Antigenic variation can occur by altering a variety of surface molecules including proteins and carbohydrates. Antigenic variation can result from gene conversion, site-specific DNA inversions, hypermutation, or recombination of sequence cassettes. The result is that even a clonal population of pathogens expresses a heterogeneous phenotype. Many of the proteins known to show antigenic or phase variation are related to virulence.
Henneguya zschokkei or Henneguya salminicola is a species of a myxosporean endoparasite. It afflicts several salmon in the genera Oncorhynchus and Salmo. It causes milky flesh or tapioca disease. H. zschokkei is notable for its lack of mitochondria, mitochondrial DNA, aerobic respiration and its reliance on an exclusively anaerobic metabolism.
The evolution of biological complexity is one important outcome of the process of evolution. Evolution has produced some remarkably complex organisms – although the actual level of complexity is very hard to define or measure accurately in biology, with properties such as gene content, the number of cell types or morphology all proposed as possible metrics.
Population genomics is the large-scale comparison of DNA sequences of populations. Population genomics is a neologism that is associated with population genetics. Population genomics studies genome-wide effects to improve our understanding of microevolution so that we may learn the phylogenetic history and demography of a population.
Spironucleus is a diplomonad genus that is bilaterally symmetrical and can be found in various animal hosts. This genus is a binucleate flagellate, which is able to live in the anaerobic conditions of animal intestinal tracts. A characteristic of Spironucleus that is common to all metamonads is that it does not have aerobic mitochondria, but instead rely on hydrogenosomes to produce energy. Spironucleus has six anterior and two posterior flagella. The life cycle of Spironucleus involves one active trophozoite stage and one inactive cyst stage. Spironucleus undergoes asexual reproduction via longitudinal binary fission. Spironucleusvortens can cause lateral line erosion in freshwater anglefish. Spironucleuscolumbae is found to cause hexamitiasis in pigeons. Finally, Spironucleusmuris is found to cause illnesses of the digestive system in mice, rats, and hamsters. The genome of Spironucleus has been studied to exhibit the role of lateral gene transfer from prokaryotes in allowing for anaerobic metabolic processes in diplomonads.
Genome evolution is the process by which a genome changes in structure (sequence) or size over time. The study of genome evolution involves multiple fields such as structural analysis of the genome, the study of genomic parasites, gene and ancient genome duplications, polyploidy, and comparative genomics. Genome evolution is a constantly changing and evolving field due to the steadily growing number of sequenced genomes, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic, available to the scientific community and the public at large.
In biology, a pathogen, in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ.
Diseases and parasites in salmon, trout and other salmon-like fishes of the family Salmonidae are also found in other fish species. The life cycle of many salmonids is anadromous, so such fish are exposed to parasites in fresh water, brackish water and saline water.
