Humans

 

 

Brief description: The Naegleria fowleri is a single celled free-living organism more commonly known as the brain-eating ameba. It is an invertebrate that is found in warm fresh water areas such as hot springs, lakes and rivers (Naegleria fowleri, n.d). It cannot survive in treated waters such as swimming pools or salt water. The ameba can survive in waters up to 133 degrees Fahrenheit, which converts to about 45 degrees Celsius. It is microscopic in size measuring from 8-15 micrometers depending on environment and stage of life. Compared to a 40-50 micrometer wide human hair this ameba is a very small and often deadly organism (Brain Eating Ameba, n.d). Dr.’s Fowler and Cutler discovered the ameba in Australia in 1965. This discovery gave strong evidence that protozoa can live both in a human host and freely in the environment (Fero, 2010).

 

Description of symbiotic relationship: The symbiotic relationship shared between the Human and Naegleria fowleri is parasitic. Meaning that one organism lives on or in another “host” organism and causes harm to the host. The Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis causes a fatal brain infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis or PAM. This only occurs when infected/contaminated water enters a Human body through the nasal cavity. The ameba cannot affect humans if it enters the body through the mouth and is ingested (Naegleria fowleri, n.d). Symptoms of the infection start approximately 1-7 days after exposure. Symptoms of the disease happen in 2 stages, the first stage the host will experience fever, nausea, vomiting and a severe frontal headache. In the second stage the host will experience a stiff neck, seizers and hallucinations altered mental states and finally they will fall into a coma. 1-12 days after symptoms start to occur are normally when the death of the host happens (Life Cycle and morphology, n.d).

 

Description of the parasite: Naegleria fowleri is a unicellular eukaryote and is also a free-living organism meaning it is not dependent on any other species in order to survive it is solely dependent. The Naegleria fowleri has three morphological stages, which include: trophozite (ameba), flagellate and the cyst stage. In the first stage trophozite the ameba is approximately 10-20 micrometers in diameter it is mobile during this stage and has a slug like appearance also known as limax. The Naegleria fowleri moves by extending narrow and dull lobodium a type of pseudopodia, which is used temporarily for movement and feeding. It then has intracellular fluid (meaning contained or occurring within the cell) flow in a particular direction or in projection of something which in tern allows the ameba to move. At this stage the Naegleria fowleri demonstrates aerobic metabolism (oxygen using) and has a working mitochondria. In the flagellate stage the Naegleria fowleri appears as a pear shape ameba with two flagellum. The flagellum is what separates the Naegleria fowleri from other free-living pathogenic ameba. Putting a sample in distilled water with trophozite can test whether or not a species is Naegleria fowleri determining if it moves to the flagellate state or not. The final stage the cyst stage occurs when Naegleria fowleri is under harsh conditions such as extreme temperatures. This stage encloses the ameba is a single walled sphere 8-12 micrometers in diameter. When the conditions are improved or ideal the ameba can escape the cyst through the ostiole located in the middle of the cyst. During these three stages the ameba has one nucleus containing karyosome, meaning chromatin in the middle of the nucleus opposed to peripheral chromatin on the outer edges. The ameba feeds on other bacteria and reproduces asexually through promitosis, which is a type of binary fusion involving kayosomes

(Naegleria fowleri, n.d).