Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Fungal Genet Biol. 2017 Oct;107:20-23. doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2017.07.006. Epub 2017 Jul 25.
It has been a long-standing debate if sexual development occurs in the microsporidian lineages. Previous studies, including morphological observations, ploidy analysis, and the presence of a sex-related locus, provided evidence of possible extant of sexual development. This study presents another line of evidence by monitoring the parasitophorous vacuoles (PVs) formed by Encephalitozoon cuniculi. Time lapse observations of infection cycles of E. cuniculi revealed that multiple PVs can be formed in a single host cell and the PVs in the single cell can merge (fusion) or split (fission). The dynamics of PVs may provide a route for interactions between genetically distinct microsporidian isolates during host infections.
性发育是否发生在微孢子虫谱系中一直存在争议。先前的研究，包括形态观察、倍性分析和性相关基因座的存在，提供了可能存在性发育的证据。本研究通过监测兔脑炎微孢子虫形成的寄生泡（PVs）提供了另一种证据。对兔脑炎微孢子虫感染周期的延时观察表明，单个宿主细胞中可以形成多个 PVs，并且单个细胞中的 PVs 可以融合（融合）或分裂（裂变）。PVs 的动态变化可能为宿主感染过程中具有遗传差异的微孢子虫分离株之间的相互作用提供了一种途径。
