Acanthamoeba

Khan, Navee Ahmed, Iqbal, Junaid & Siddiqui, Ruqaiyyah, 2014, Taste and Smell in Acanthamoeba Feeding, Acta Protozoologica 53 (2), pp. 139-144 : 139

ACANTHAMOEBA : A MODEL ORGANISM

Acanthamoeba was discovered as a culture contaminant of the fungus, Cryptococcus pararoseus in 1930 by Castellani ( Castellani 1930). In recent decades, Acanthamoeba has gained significant attention by the scientific community. It is used as a model organism to study the molecular basis of motility, ability to capture prey by phagocytosis, and host-pathogen interactions. It is also described as the Trojan horse of the microbial world, an organism involved in hyperparasitism (parasite within a parasite), as well as a component of the ecosystem (reviewed in Khan 2009). Recently, it has been suggested to be a ‘genetic mixer’, i.e., an environmental sanctuary for bacterial/viral pathogens facilitat-

Address for correspondence: Naveed Ahmed Khan, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, Karachi, Pakistan; Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; E-mail: [e-mail] ing genetic exchanges which affect their virulence, as well as cellular differentiation. Moreover, the discovery of Mimivirus (closer to prokaryotes than viruses) inside Acanthamoeba challenged scientific theories on evolution among virologists and evolutionists ( Raoult et al. 2004, Yamada 2011, Colson et al. 2012). The purpose of this article is to discuss the potential of Acanthamoeba as a model organism of yet another physiologically important function: that is sensing food. This property is highlighted in the context of selective feeding behaviour of this important unicellular organism.