Lifecycles of Pathogenic Protists in Humans

This volume covers the most important parasitic protists that are known  to infect humans. The pathogens discussed cause diseases like  toxoplasmosis, malaria, cryptosporidiosis, leishmaniasis, amoebiasis,  trichomoniasis, and giardiasis. Readers from microbiology will  appreciate the special focus on protist cell biology. As demonstrated in  several of the chapters, these parasites are characterized by peculiar  structures and organelles that cannot be found in mammalian cells – even  though both are eukaryotic.

The book employs light and electron  microscopy to display the changing morphology in various stages of  parasitic development. In turn, the results are supplemented by  transcriptome and proteome profiles that help to describe how these  changes take place on a molecular level. Both researchers and clinicians  from tropical medicine will find essential and practically applicable  background information on these increasingly important pathogens.