FunMLO

Anaerobic and microaerophilic protists are of great importance to human health. A number of these organisms, such as Giardia lamblia, Trichomonas vaginalis and Blastocystis hominis affect human health directly by infecting human beings, causing diarrhoea, abdominal pain, sexually transmitted infection, and an elevated risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus. Others, such as Tritrichomonas foetus in cattle, infect animals of economic or environmental importance to human beings. Understanding the biochemical pathways required for the survival of these organisms under anaerobic conditions has been of great importance to developing drug targets and understanding drug resistance. In addition, the importance of free-living, non-parasitic anaerobic protists to anaerobic aquatic ecosystems has not yet been fully investigated. Many of these organisms were originally believed to lack mitochondria, the organelles that are involved in energy generation using oxygen. In recent years however, these organisms have been found to contain organelles derived from mitochondria. My work aims to characterize the functional diversity of these organelles, including the number and components of their biochemical pathways, the genes encoding these components, and how the organelles may have evolved as their hosts adapted to an anaerobic environment. The organism that my work primarly focuses on is closely related to an aerobic protist, and therefore affords me the opportunity to study the process of adaptation to an anaerobic environment. This work will lead to a deeper understanding of protist adaptations to an anaerobic environment. Fully understanding the diversity of mitochondrially-derived organelles will also lead to a greater understanding of their hosts’ impact on marine ecosystems, and their impact on human health and economic activities.