Dr Pascale Guiton, an Assistant Professor at California State University, tells us about the fascinating biology of Toxoplasma gondii, a widely spread protozoan parasite that infects most warm blooded mammals and can cause severe disease in foetuses and immunocompromised hosts.
We discuss how Toxoplasma gondii can modulate the behaviour of its hosts, why its sexual reproduction cycle only occurs in felines, the inflammatory response it elicits and its complex mechanisms of genome regulation.
A diagram of the complex life-cycle of the parasite will be helpful to follow this discussion (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Life-cycle-of-T-gondii-Sexual-and-asexual-reproduction-of-Toxoplasma-take-place-in_fig1_337784380)
Links to the articles discussed:
To follow up on Pascale Guiton's research: https://guitonlab.com