Charles R Vossbrinck, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Published online: June 2001
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001982
The phylum Microsporidia is a group of obligate intracellular single-celled parasites of animals; some are species-specific, whereas others appear to have a broader host range. A few Microsporidia are clinically important as opportunistic parasites of immunocompromised humans.
Keywords: emerging disease; sporont; polar filament; encephalitozoon; insect parasite
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Figure 1. Electron micrograph of Amblyospora abserati. Courtesy of Theodore Andreadis.
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Figure 2. Microsporidial features, based on those of Amblyospora species (Figure 2).
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Figure 3. Nosema/Vairimorpha life cycle.
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Figure 4. Pleistophora life cycle.
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Figure 5. Amblyospora life cycle.
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Figure 6. Phylogeny of Microsporidia based on comparative rDNA sequence analysis. H, Reported from humans.
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| References | |
| Balbiani G (1882) Sur les microsporidies ou sporospermies des articules. Comptes Rendus de L'Academie des Sciences 95: 1168–1171. | |
| Cavalier-Smith T (1987) Eukaryotes with no mitochondria. Nature 326: 352–353. | |
| Edlind T, Visvesvara G, Li J and Katiyar S (1994) Cryptosporidium and microsporidial beta-tubulin sequences: predictions of benzimidazole sensitivity and phylogeny. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 41: S38. | |
| Germot A, Philippe H and LeGuyader H (1997) Evidence for loss of mitochondria in microsporidia from a mitochondrial-type hsp70 in Nosema locustae. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 87: 159–168. | |
| Hirt RP, Healy D, Vossbrinck CR, Canning EU and Embley TM (1997) Identification of mitochondrial Hsp70 orthologue in Vairimorpha necatrix: molecular evidence the Microsporidia once contained mitochondria. Current Biology 7: 995–998. | |
| Hirt RP, Logsdon JM, Healy B, Dorey MW, Doolittle WF and Embley TM (1999) Microsporidia are related to fungi: evidence from the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II and other proteins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 96: 580–585. | |
| Hollister WS, Canning EU and Anderson CL (1996) Identification of Microsporidia causing human disease. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 43: 104S–104S. | |
| Kamaishi T, Hashimoto T, Nakamura Y et al. (1996) Complete nucleotide sequences of the genes encoding translation elongation factors 1 alpha and 2 from a microsporidian parasite, Glugea plecoglossi: implications for the deepest branching of eukaryotes. Journal of Biochemistry (Tokyo) 120: 1095–1103. | |
| Levaditi C, Nicolau S and Schoen R (1923) L'agent étologique de l'encephalite epizootique du lapin (Encephalitozoon cuniculi). Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences de la Société de Biologie 89: 984–986. | |
| Naegeli C (1857) Uber die neue Krankheit der Seidenraupe und verwandte Organismen. Botanische Zeitung 15: 760–761. | |
| Shadduck JA and Greeley E (1989) Microsporidia and human infections. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 2: 158–165. | |
| book Sprague V (1976) "Systematics of the Microsporidia". In: Bulla LA and Cheng TC (eds) Comparative Pathobiology, vol. 2. New York: Plenum Press. | |
| Sprague V and Becnel JJ (1998) Note on the name-author-date combination for the taxon MICROSPORIDIES Balbiani, 1882, when ranked as a phylum. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 71: 91–94. | |
| Vossbrinck CR, Maddox JV, Friedman S, Debrunner-Vossbrinck BA and Woese CR (1987) Ribosomal RNA sequence suggests microsporidia are extremely ancient eukaryotes. Nature 326: 411–414. | |
| Further Reading | |
| book Canning EU and Lom J (1986) The Microsporidia of Vertebrates. London: Academic Press. | |
| Dawes B (1998) Advances in Parasitology; Opportunistic Protozoa in Humans. Part 2 Enterocytozoon bieneusi and other Microsporidia. 40: 281–385. | |
| book Issi IV (1986) "Microsporidia". In: Beyer TV (ed.) Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Society of Protozoologists of the USSR, Series Protozoology, No. 10. | |
| Larsson R (1986) Ultrastructure, function, and classification of Microsporidia. Progress in Protistology 1: 325–390. | |
| Larsson RJI (1988) Identification of microsporidian genera (Protozoa, Microspora): a guide with comments on the taxonomy. Archiv für Protistenkunde 136: 1–37. | |
| book Sprague V (1976) "Systematics of the Microsporidia". In: Bulla LA and Cheng TC (eds) Comparative Pathobiology, vol. 2. New York: Plenum Press. | |
| Sprague V and Becnel JJ (1992) Taxonomy of phylum Microspora. Critical Reviews in Microbiology 18: 285–395. | |
| book Wittner M and Weiss LM (eds) (1999) The Microsporidia and Microsporidiosis. Washington, DC: ASM Press. | |
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