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Biology of Toxoplasma gondii

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Congenital toxoplasmosis

Abstract

Toxoplasma is a protozoan of the phylum Apicomplexa [1], the term referring to the apical complex of the cytoskeleton of this organism, also present, for example, in the Coccidia and the sporozoites of the malaria organisms. There are 2 stages of Toxoplasma which are encountered in human patients, other mammalian and avian hosts: tachyzoites and bradyzoites (Fig. 1) [2]. I will describe a variety of features of Toxoplasma that may confront clinicians in relation to Toxoplasma and the infection and disease it produces, and refer to scientific sources and more detailed information in the references. Because Toxoplasma gondii is the only species in the genus, I will refer to it simply by genus rather than using the binomial.

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  1. J. K. Frenkel
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté de Médecine de Grenoble, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France

    Pierre Ambroise-Thomas

  2. Statenserum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Peter Eskild Petersen

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Frenkel, J.K. (2000). Biology of Toxoplasma gondii . In: Ambroise-Thomas, P., Petersen, P.E. (eds) Congenital toxoplasmosis. Springer, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-2-8178-0847-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-2-8178-0847-5_2

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