Amoeba Eats Cells Alive

For decades, scientists assumed that the intestinal parasite Entamoeba histolytica killed human tissues with toxic molecules before ingesting them. They were wrong; it’s actually the other way around, according to a study published in Nature.

Katherine Ralston, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia, has shown that E. histolytica—a single-celled amoeba—tears chunks from host cells and eats them. These attacks eventually kill the cell, at which point the parasite moves on. E. histolytica is the only parasite known to attack tissues in this way—a process known as trogocytosis, after “trogo,” the Greek word for “nibble.”

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Amoeba Eats Cells Alive 

Source: TheScientists
Image credits: Katherine Realston