Our larval cultures (larvae of the deep-sea coral Lophelia pertusa) has been infested with an enigmatic parasite. It's spherical, with no visible flagella or cilia, but still move around freely with a shaking motion. It snaps off the larval cilia via endocytosis to incapacitate it, and then sink into the larval ectoderm and starts reproducing inside the larva. It cause abnormal growth in the larvae, and eventually the larva burst open and small parasites swarms out. In the image panel you can see light microscopy images of the parasites in A and B, infested larvae in C and D, and SEM images of an infested larva in E and F. In the inset image in F you can see a parasite with what appears to be a cilia being engulfed. They seem to be in the size range of 1 to almost 20 microns.
Is there anyone out there who can help us identify this parasite? We will take samples for DNA now that we've encountered them again, but getting help from an expert on protozoan parasites would be immensely helpful!
This year we probably have several different parasites in our larval cultures, so we have a treasure trove of parasites for anyone with interests into parasitic protozoans.
The question is, is it just us, or is it an increase of parasites in the natural environment as well? We have colleagues in the Azores who has had the same type of parasites in their coral larval cultures, the 'original' spherical ones.
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