About this Research Topic
Unicellular eukaryotic parasites cause significant morbidity and disability worldwide in both medical and veterinary contexts. Furthermore, protist parasites have evolved an incredibly diverse range of strategies to invade their hosts and ensure survival in the face of ever-vigilant immune systems by secreting proteins and metabolites along dedicated subcellular routes. However, a complete understanding of the cell biology underlying interactions and protein/metabolite trafficking at protist parasite-host interfaces, whether extra- or intra- cellular, is far from reached. This current state of affairs hampers interventions for treatment and vaccination that have little success for almost protist parasites and notably for Plasmodium (malaria), Trypanosoma (sleeping sickness in humans and Nagana in cattle), Entamoeba (amoebiasis), Giardia (giardiasis), Toxoplasma (toxoplasmosis) and Phytomonas (plant wiliting). It is therefore of paramount importance that machineries employed by both hosts and parasites to “communicate” in a constant cross-species dialogue be dissected and understood in their cell and molecular biology context. Tapping into the molecular language underlying parasite-host communication is a genuine frontier waiting to be breached.
In this Research Topic, we aim to bring together the foremost experts in the cell biology of protist parasite-host interactions for a critical evaluation and review of data published so far.
In particular, we welcome Reviews, Original Research and other article types falling under following topics:
• Cell biology of secretory trafficking at the parasite-host interface (proteins and other metabolites).
• Cell biology of organelles involved in host-parasite interaction.
• Cell and developmental biology of parasite differentiation.
• Cell biology of parasite-microbiome-host interactions
• Omics resources as a basis for investigating the cell and developmental biology of parasite-host interactions.
• High-throughput imaging approaches for the study of the parasite-host interface.
In this Research Topic, we aim to bring together the foremost experts in the cell biology of protist parasite-host interactions for a critical evaluation and review of data published so far.
In particular, we welcome Reviews, Original Research and other article types falling under following topics:
• Cell biology of secretory trafficking at the parasite-host interface (proteins and other metabolites).
• Cell biology of organelles involved in host-parasite interaction.
• Cell and developmental biology of parasite differentiation.
• Cell biology of parasite-microbiome-host interactions
• Omics resources as a basis for investigating the cell and developmental biology of parasite-host interactions.
• High-throughput imaging approaches for the study of the parasite-host interface.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
