How do cryptosporidia establish their unique niche within the host epithelium?
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| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Cryptosporidia are significant vertebrate pathogens with unique invasion strategy, which, together with phylogenetic analyses suggest a close affinity to gregarines. Electron microscopic observations on 2 evolutionarily distinct gastric species, Cryptosporidium muris from experimentally infected rodents and C. fragile from naturally infected toads, allowed us to map ultrastructural aspects of the cryptosporidian invasion process along with the origin and architecture of parasitophorous sac, and to generalize these observations for gastric cryptosporidia. Both species exhibit a comparable strategy of host cell invasion in which they do not penetrate under the host cell plasma membrane, nor do they come into close contact with the host cytoplasm. Parasite remains attached to the host cell surface, only enveloped by the host membrane folds. Thus, the term epicellular more accurately defines the host compartment within which cryptosporidia reside than does the term intracellular-extracytoplasmic. |
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