Covert cnidarians: cryptic lives of the endoparasitic Myxozoa

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• Prof Beth Okamura, Natural History Museum
• Wednesday 11 June 2025, 16:00-17:00
• Lecture Theater, Department of Pathology, Tennis Court Road.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ross Waller.

Host: Juliana Naldoni

Myxozoans are a diverse clade of endoparasites with complex life cycles and are the causative agents of some devastating fish diseases. Their phylogenetic placement was long obscure due to extreme morphological simplification and rapid evolution, but they are now established as a radiation of endoparasitic cnidarians that exploit freshwater, marine and terrestrial hosts. I will review diversity, lifestyles, and morphological simplification that characterise these generally unfamiliar animals and then present insights on how myxozoans exploit their invertebrate hosts and disperse to colonise new freshwater environments. By so revealing the cryptic lives of myxozoans we can appreciate how particular cnidarian traits may have facilitated and promoted this remarkable endoparasitic radiation.

This talk is part of the Parasitology Seminars series.

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