Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The role played by electron microscopy in advancing our understanding of Toxoplasma gondii and other apicomplexans

Int J Parasitol. 2009 Feb 25. [Epub ahead of print]

The role played by electron microscopy in advancing our understanding of Toxoplasma gondii and other apicomplexans

Dubremetz JF, Ferguson DJ.

UMR CNRS 5235, Bt 24, CC 107, Université de Montpellier 2, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 05 France.

In many ways the history of the discovery of the life cycle of Toxoplasma gondii and the development of biological electron microscopy progressed in parallel through the 1950s and 1960s. Although Toxoplasma was discovered in 1908, it was only in the 1950s that the extent of the infection in humans and domestic animals was realised and work was undertaken to elucidate its life cycle (reviewed elsewhere in this edition). The development of ultrastructural techniques and their application to biological systems including Toxoplasma developed over the same period. This resulted in a synergistic effect with the re-classification of previously unrelated parasites within a single phylum, the Apicomplexa, which was based on the ultrastructural appearances of the infectious stages. This review will describe the central role played by electron microscopy and Toxoplasma in the developments associated with this progress.

PMID: 19249305 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

1 comment:

ummicro said...

Nothing beats visual inspection of specimen of interest.
The use of microscopy and biotechnology combined, are valuable tools for researching these important parasites.