by Elio — We learn with mother's milk (or at least in a beginning microbiology course) that certain bacteria, notably rickettsiae, chlamydiae, and anaplasmas, cannot grow outside of host cells. Thus, they are defined as being strictly intracellular parasites. Ha! A member of the rickettsiae has now been found to grow freely outside of host cells.
by S. Marvin Friedman — Malaria is one of the most devastating infectious diseases in the world today. About 400 million people are infected each year and of those 1.2 million die. Efforts to control malaria have been held back by the lack of an effective vaccine, the alarming rapidity with which Plasmodium, the protozoan parasite…
by Patrick Keeling — Microsporidia are a diverse group of obligate intracellular eukaryotic parasites. There are approximately 1,300 formally described species in 160 genera, but this certainly represents a tiny fraction of the real diversity because most potential host lineages...
by Merry — Certain mussels called "bathymodiolins" are part of the spellbinding fauna of the dark world of oceanic hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Similar to other metazoans in that realm, they rely on chemosynthetic bacteria...
