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Updated: Feb 25, 2026

Isolation And Dendritic Cell-Uptake of Small Extracellular Vesicles from Echinococcus granulosus
Published on: March 28, 2025
Dynamics of parasitophorous vacuoles formed by the microsporidian pathogen Encephalitozoon cuniculi
Soo Chan Lee1, Joseph Heitman1
1Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Abstract:
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.
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