Protozoan Symbioses

Jiří Lom, Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Published online: May 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001932

Protozoan symbiosis describes a condition of existence in which two protozoa or a protozoan with another partner – a virus, a prokaryote, another protist or a multicellular eukaryote – live together. It brings nutritional benefit to both symbionts or to only one of them, or it may be detrimental to one of them.

Keywords: protozoa; symbionts; mutualism; commensalism; parasitism

Figure 1. Live individuals of species of the genus Naegleria. (a) and (b) Crawling amoebae. (c) Cyst. ×1400. Photo by Dr I. Dyková.
Figure 2. Silver impregnated cytoskeletal structure in the adhesive disc of Trichodina reticulata, an ectocommensal from the skin of a fish. ×2000.
Figure 3. Bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma carassii from the blood of common carp. ×1900.
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 References
    Cleveland LR and Grimstone AV (1964) The fine structure of the flagellate Mixotricha paradoxa and its associated microorganisms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 159: 668–686.
    book John DT (1993) "Opportunistically pathogenic freeliving amoebae". In: Kreier JP and Baker JR (eds) Parasitic Protozoa, 2nd edn, vol. 3, pp. 139–246. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
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 Further Reading
    book Ball GH (1968) "Organisms living on and in protozoa". In: Chen TT (ed.) Research in Protozoology, vol. 3, pp. 565–718. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
    book Hausmann K and Hülsmann N (1966) Protozoology. Stuttgart: Georg Thieme Verlag.
    book Kennedy CR (1975) Ecological Animal Parasitology. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
    book Lee JJ, Hutner SH and Bovee EC (eds) (1985) An Illustrated Guide to Protozoa. Lawrence, KS: Society of Protozoologists.
    book Margulis L, Corliss JO, Melkonian M and Chapman DJ (eds) (1990) Handbook of Protoctista. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
    book Orenski SW (1966) "Intermicrobial symbiosis". In: Henry SM (ed.) Symbiosis. vol. 1, pp. 1–29. New York: Academic Press.
    book Schmidt GR and Roberts LS (1997) Foundations of Parasitology, 5th edn. St. Louis, MO: TimesMirror/Mosby College Publishing.
    book Sleigh MA (1989) Protozoa and other Protists. London: Edward Arnold.
    book Trager W (1986) Living Together. The Biology of Animal Parasitism. New York: Plenum Press.

Related Sub-Topics:

Mutualism and Symbiosis | Herbivory, Predation and Parasitism | Protozoa
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Article Title: Protozoan Symbioses
 
How to Cite close
Lom, Jiří(May 2001) Protozoan Symbioses. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0001932]