PARASITOLOGY:
A Game of Cat and Mouth
Sarah K. Volkman and Daniel L. Hartl
The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been remarkably successful, infecting 30 to 50% of the world's population, many of whom are asymptomatic. In their Perspective, Volkman and Hartl discuss new work (Su et al.) that reveals the secret of the parasite's success. The three predominant strains of T. gondii-sibling progeny of a single cross that took place 10,000 years ago-all show greatly enhanced oral transmission between intermediate vertebrate hosts.
S. K. Volkman is in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. D. L. Hartl is in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.