Description of Encephalitozoon

The type species is E. cuniculi Levaditi, Nicolau and Schoen, 1923 in macrophages of many organs and in cells of the brain and kidney of many vertebrates, particularly mammals, including humans; monomorphic, monokaryotic throughout life cycle; transmission is per os and transplacental; all stages lie in a parasitophorous vacuole bounded by a membrane of host origin; merogony involves repeated binary fissions, sometimes with delayed cytokinesis so that tetranucleate stages are formed; sporonts become detached from the vacuolar membrane as the surface coat is secreted.; generally disporoblastic, occasionally tetra-sporoblastic, in the lumen of the vacuole; spores, 2.5 x 1.5 µm, ellipsoid and uninucleate with rugose exospore and moderately thick endospore; polaroplast is lamellar; polar tube is isofilar with 3 -8 coils; posterior vacuole is sometimes present; many adult acquired infections are asymptomatic and transplacental or neonatal infections may cause serious renal and neurological complications and high mortality.