Encephalitozoon intestinalis
Encyclopedia
Encephalitozoon intestinalis is a parasite
. It can cause microsporidiosis
.
It is notable as having one of the smallest genome
among known organisms, containing only 2.25 million base pairs. Its genome was completely sequenced in 2010.
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
. It can cause microsporidiosis
Microsporidiosis
Microspridiosis is an opportunistic intestinal infection that causes diarrhea and wasting in immunocompromised individuals . It results from different species of microsporidia, a group of microbial fungi....
.
It is notable as having one of the smallest genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
among known organisms, containing only 2.25 million base pairs. Its genome was completely sequenced in 2010.