Editorial: Intraspecies variability in apicomplexan parasites: epidemiology, traits and virulence
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2024
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Frontiers Media
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Arranz-Solís, D., & Mukhopadhyay, D. (2024). Editorial: Intraspecies variability in apicomplexan parasites: epidemiology, traits and virulence. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 14, 1497043. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2024.1497043
Abstract
Single cell eukaryotic obligate intracellular apicomplexan parasites are major cause of life-threatening infections in humans (Plasmodium spp., Toxoplasma gondii,
Cryptosporidium spp.) and cause significant effect on cattle and poultry industries Neospora caninum and Eimeria spp.) that leads to massive global economic loss every
year. The outcome of infection and pathogenesis by apicomplexan parasites are largely dependent on the host and the parasite strain genotypes (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2020). In
the current ‘omics’ era, with large datasets and new technologies frequently developed, the challenge is to combine these datasets to better understand the biological mechanisms by
which parasites infect hosts and cause diseases, emphasizing the identification of key proteins that could be targeted for therapeutic or immunoprophylactic interventions. Due
to the advent of the newer ‘game-changer’ methodologies, especially the CRISPR-Cas systems and the multi-omics driven approaches (whole genome sequencing,
transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.), identification of newer strains and genotype-phenotype correlations became easier (Seeber and Steinfelder, 2016). In this
sense, recent reports have highlighted that freshly obtained isolates have different phenotypic and genotypic traits compared to reference strains (Uzelac et al., 2024). In
addition, new clinical signs and histopathological changes have also been described in different hosts or animal models (Sánchez-Sánchez et al., 2019). Finally, the distribution
and epidemiology of each specific parasite is of relevance to understanding their importance in geographical areas that may be associated with outbreaks or cases with
particularly unexpected outcomes
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Author contributions
DA-S: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. DM: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. DA-S is funded by the César Nombela research grant (2023-T1/BIO-28962)from the Atracción de talento de la Comunidad de Madrid program. DM is funded by a Start Up research grant (SRG) from SERB, Govt. of India SRG/2022/001381.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.