The 14th International Workshops on Opportunistic Protists (IWOP 14)

The 14th International Workshops on Opportunistic Protists (IWOP-14) was held August 10 to 12, 2017 in Cincinnati, OH, USA. The IWOP meetings focus on opportunistic protists (OIs); e.g. free-living amoebae, Pneumocystis, Cryptosporidium, Toxoplasma, the Microsporidia, and kinetoplastid flagellates. Highlights of Pneumocystis research included reports of primary homothallism for mating; a potential requirement for sexual replication in its life cycle; a new antigen on the surface of small asci; and roles for CLRs, Dectin-1 and Mincle in host responses; and identification of MSG families and mechanisms used for surface variation. Studies of Cryptosporidia included comparative genomics, a new cryopreservation method; the role of mucin in attachment and invasion, and epidemiological surveys illustrating species diversity in animals. One of the 5 identified proteins in the polar tube of Microsporidia, PTP4, was shown to play a role in host infection. Zebrafish were used as a low cost vertebrate animal model for evaluation of potential anti-toxoplasma drugs. Folk medicine compounds with anti-toxoplasma activity were presented, and reports on the chronic toxoplasma infection provided evidence for increased tractability for the study of this difficult life cycle stage. Escape from the parasitophorus vacuole and cell cycle regulation were topics of study in the acute phase.