by Merry — Even if Gi­a­r­dia lam­blia weren't one of the most com­mon hu­man par­a­sites, it would still gar­ner its share of at­ten­tion. It is one of the ear­li­est di­verg­ing eu­kary­otes, and it has its own way of do­ing things. For starters, it has two ap­par­ently equiv­a­lent diploid nu­clei, both of which are tran­scrip­tion­ally ac­tive. Why does this mat­ter?