The free living amoeba, Acanthamoeba spp are found and distributed in a wide variety of environmental sources including air, water, soil dust, vegetables as well as the skin, cornea, lung and brain of human (1). Isolation of Acanthamoeba cyst from environmental sources such as soil, fresh surface water and stagnant water have been showed that this environmental sources have potential importance...

Acanthamoeba is free-living protist pathogen capable of causing a blinding keratitis and granulomatous encephalitis. However, the mechanisms of Acanthamoeba pathogenesis are still not clear. Here, our results show that cells co-cultured with pathogenic Acanthamoeba would be spherical and floated, even without contacting the protists. Then, the Acanthamoeba protists would contact and engulf thes...

Mycobacterium marinum is a waterborne mycobacterial pathogen. Due to their common niche, protozoa likely represent natural hosts for M. marinum. We demonstrate that the ESX-1 secretion system is required for M. marinum pathogenesis and that M. marinum utilizes actin-based motility in amoebae. Therefore, at least two virulence pathways used by M. marinum in macrophages are conserved during M. ma...

A new species of Acanthamoeba was isolated from a freshwater fish in Korea and tentatively named Acanthamoeba sp. YM-4 (Korean isolate YM-4). The trophozoites were 11.0-23.0 micrometer in length and had hyaline filamentous projections. Cysts were similar to those of A. culbertsoni and A. royreba, which were previously designated as Acanthamoeba group III. Acanthamoeba YM-4 can survive at 40 deg...

The type III secretion system among Gram-negative bacteria is known to deliver effectors into host cell to interfere with host cellular processes. The type III secretion system in Yersina, Pseudomonas and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli have been well documented to be involved in the bacterial pathogenicity. The existence of type III secretion system has been demonstrated in neuropathogenic ...

Acanthamoeba and Naegleria are widely distributed in fresh water, soil and dust throughout the world, and cause meningoencephalitis or keratoconjunctivitis in humans and other mammals. Korean isolates, namely, Naegleria sp. YM-1 and Acanthamoeba sp. YM-2, YM-3, YM-4, YM-5, YM-6 and YM-7, were collected from sewage, water puddles, a storage reservoir, the gills of a fresh water fish, and by corn...

BACKGROUND Acanthamoeba- bacteria interactions enable pathogenic bacteria to tolerate harsh conditions and lead to transmission to the susceptible host. The present study was aimed to address the presence of bacterial endosymbionts of Acanthamoeba isolated from recreational water sources of Tehran, Iran. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study regarding occurrence of bacteria in en...

Acanthamoeba species are free-living amoebae that can be found in almost every range of environments. Within this genus, a number of species are recognized as human pathogens, potentially causing Acanthamoeba keratitis, granulomatous amoebic encephalitis, and chronic granulomatous lesions. Soil and water samples were taken from experimental station at Julianna Major of Plant Protection Institut...