ABSTRACT
Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most well studied parasites because of its medical and veterinary importance. It is used extensively as a model for cell biology of apicomplexan organisms. Two books were recently published that dealt with cell biology and molecular biology of this parasite.13,1350 Some of the advantages of using T. gondii for cell biology are that it is large enough to be easily seen under the light microscope, it can be grown in virtually any warm-blooded cell line, it can be maintained indenitely in mice and cell culture, and there is only one species that infects all hosts. Additionally, this parasite is readily amenable to genetic manipulation, with rened protocols for classic and reverse genetics, high transfection efciency, and expression of epitope tags.14,1350
It has been 100 years since the discovery of the parasite in 1908 and the event was celebrated with publication of historical accounts of the parasite and its biology.413,420,500,619,779,1335 Historic landmarks are summarized in Table 1.1.
