A heat shock to amebae of the amebo-flagellate Naegleria gruberi during differentiation into swimming flagellates results in the induction of heat shock proteins as well as multiple flagella. The principal heat shock proteins migrate on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels with apparent molecular weights of 96,000, 77,000, 70,000, and 68,000. These proteins are synthesized preferentially ...

Flagellates of Naegleria gruberi contain two calmodulins that differ in apparent molecular weight and intracellular location. Calmodulin-1, localized in flagella, has an apparent molecular weight of approximately 16,000, approximately the size of other protozoan calmodulins, whereas calmodulin-2, localized in cell bodies, is 15,300. Both proteins, purified, are calmodulins by several criteria, ...

The circular extrachromosomal element of Naegleria gruberi strain EGB was linearized, molecularly cloned, and fully sequenced. The sequence comprises 14,007 bp and encodes the organism's rRNA genes, two potential open reading frames, and numerous repeated sequence regions.

In 2008 a fatal case of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, due to the amoeboflagellate Naegleria fowleri, occurred in Guadeloupe, French West Indies, after a child swam in a bath fed with geothermal water. In order to improve the knowledge on free-living amoebae in this tropical part of France, we investigated on a monthly basis, the presence of Naegleria spp. in the recreational baths, and s...

We report the first case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis in Italy, in a 9-year-old boy. Clinical course was fulminant, and diagnosis was made by identifying amebas in stained brain sections and by indirect immunofluorescence analysis. Naegleria fowleri was characterized as genotype I on the basis of polymerase chain reaction test results.

Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis is a fulminant infection of the human central nervous system caused by Naegleria fowleri, a free-living amoeba that thrives in artificially or naturally heated water. The infection usually is acquired while bathing or swimming in such waters. The portal of entry is the olfactory neuroepithelium. This report describes fatal meningoencephalitis caused by N. fow...