GiardiaDB

Giardia lamblia is a significant, environmentally transmitted, human pathogen and an amitochondriate protist. It is a major contributor to the enormous worldwide burden of human diarrheal diseases, yet the basic biology of this parasite is not well understood. No virulence factor has been identified. The Giardia lamblia genome contains only 12 million base pairs distributed onto five chromosomes. Its analysis promises to provide insights about the origins of nuclear genome organization, the metabolic pathways used by parasitic protists, and the cellular biology of host interaction and avoidance of host immune systems. Since the divergence of Giardia lamblia lies close to the transition between eukaryotes and prokaryotes in universal ribosomal RNA phylogenies, it is a valuable, if not unique, model for gaining basic insights into genetic innovations that led to formation of eukaryotic cells. In evolutionary terms, the divergence of this organism is at least twice as ancient as the common ancestor for yeast and man. A detailed study of its genome will provide insights into an early evolutionary stage of eukaryotic chromosome organization as well as other aspects of the prokaryotic / eukaryotic divergence.

溶组织阿米巴（Giardia lamblia）是一种重要的环境传播性人畜共患病原体，属于无线粒体原生动物。它是导致全球范围内人类腹泻疾病负担沉重的关键因素，然而，关于这种寄生虫的基本生物学知识尚不充分。尚未发现任何致病因子。溶组织阿米巴基因组仅包含1200万个碱基对，分布于五个染色体上。对其基因组的研究有望揭示核基因组组织的起源、寄生原生动物所使用的代谢途径，以及宿主细胞生物学中宿主相互作用和避免宿主免疫系统的机制。由于溶组织阿米巴的分化接近真核生物与原核生物在通用核糖体RNA系统发育树中的转变，它成为获取关于导致真核细胞形成的遗传创新基本见解的宝贵模型，甚至可以说是独一无二的模型。从进化的角度来看，该生物的分化至少比酵母菌和人类的共同祖先还要古老两倍。对其基因组的深入研究将有助于揭示真核生物染色体组织早期进化阶段以及真核生物/原核生物分化的其他方面。