Toxoplasma gondii

All unapproved Citizendium articles may contain errors of fact, bias, grammar etc. A version of an article is unapproved unless it is marked as citable with a dedicated green template at the top of the page, as in this version of the 'Biology' article. Citable articles are intended to be of reasonably high quality. The participants in the Citizendium project make no representations about the reliability of Citizendium articles or, generally, their suitability for any purpose. This article is currently being developed as part of an Eduzendium student project in the framework of a course entitled Microbiology 201 at Queens College, CUNY. The course homepage can be found at CZ:Biol 201: General Microbiology. For the course duration, the article is closed to outside editing. Of course you can always leave comments on the discussion page. The anticipated date of course completion is May 21, 2009. One month after that date at the latest, this notice shall be removed. Besides, many other Citizendium articles welcome your collaboration!

Toxoplasma gondii
Scientific classification

Description and significance

Toxoplasma gondii is a single celled organism that is known for being the cause of Toxoplasmosis, a common food born illness.

Structure

Cell Structure

T. gondii is a unicellular protist with an amorphous amoeboid-like body form. They have no flagella or other motility structures but move by amoeboid motion. The plasma membrane is surrounded by a cell wall. Although they do not have a contractile vesicle they have alveoli just below their plasma membrane. These alveoli are subcellular cavities characteristic of many protists that are important for stabilization of the cellular surface. The apical end of their spores contains a mass of organelles that help the spores invade their host tissue.

Genome structure

The complete circular T. gondii genome was sequenced by The University of Pennsylvania in 2006 using the Random Shot-gun method. The size of the genome is reported to be 34,996nt long. Of the entire genome, fifty two percent codes for proteins. Of the 63 genes present, 37 encode structural RNAs and 26 code for other proteins. The GC content of the genome is reported as twenty-one percent.

Use the following link to view the complete genome of T. gondii according to gene location. [1]

Pathology