Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 19
Centrosomes and Cell Division
in Apicomplexa
Leandro Lemgruber, Marek Cyrklaff and Freddy Frischknecht
Abstract Apicomplexans are curious single-celled organisms. Belonging to the
group of chromalveolates, life for an apicomplexan can be parasitic and some
species can cause diseases such as malaria or toxoplasmosis. No apicomplexan is
alike, although they share some common features such as being highly polar cells
with unique apical organelles. They often change the cells of their metazoan hosts.
When they move, apicomplexans do not crawl but glide; when they divide,
apicomplexans go through mechanisms matched in cell biological bizarreness only
by their names. They undergo schizogony or endodyogeny, processes that are
usually not part of a regular molecular cell biology textbook; but they should, as
their uniqueness might lead to insights into what proteins and processes are truly
essential to make progeny. Here we highlight some of our current knowledge of
centrosome and microtubule biology of selected apicomplexan parasites for the
yeast and metazoan cell biologist to contemplate.
19.1 Introduction
Most molecular and cell biological studies of any kind are conducted on vertebrate or
metazoan model organisms, all belonging to the Opisthokonta, while some research is
also performed on plants. In comparison, little attention is being paid to the vast
majority of biological life forms outside these two groups. This is curious considering
L. Lemgruber (
&
)
M. Cyrklaff
F. Frischknecht
Department of Infectious Diseases, Parasitology,
University of Heidelberg Medical School,
Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120
Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: leandro.lemgruber@med.uni-heidelberg.de
