This article is about the protist. For the disease it causes, see Naegleriasis. For another protist with the same common name, see Balamuthia mandrillaris.
This article is missing information about genome assemblies (drafts and one unpublished but finished genome on NCBI). Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.(January 2021)
Naegleria fowleri
Diagram depicting the stages of Naegleria fowleri's life-cycle and environment at that stage
Drawings of the three stages Naegleria fowleri's life-cycle
Naegleria fowleri, also known as the brain-eating amoeba, is a species of the genus Naegleria. It belongs to the phylum Percolozoa and is classified as an amoeboflagellateexcavate,[1] an organism capable of behaving as both an amoeba and a flagellate. This free-living microorganism primarily feeds on bacteria but can become pathogenic in humans, causing an extremely rare, sudden, severe, and almost always fatal brain infection known as naegleriasis or primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).[2]
It is typically found in warm freshwater bodies such as lakes,[3] rivers, hot springs,[4] warm water discharge from industrial or power plants,[5] geothermal well water,[6] and poorly maintained or minimally chlorinated swimming pools with residual chlorine levels under 0.5 g/m3,[7][8][9] water heaters,[10] soil, and pipes connected to tap water.[11] It can exist in either an amoeboid or temporary flagellate stage.[12]
^Schuster, Frederick L.; Visvesvara, Govinda S. (2004). "Free-living amoebae as opportunistic and non-opportunistic pathogens of humans and animals". International Journal for Parasitology. 34 (9): 1001–1027. doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2004.06.004. PMID15313128.
^Maclean, RebeccaC.; Richardson, DennisJ.; LePardo, Robin; Marciano-Cabral, Francine (2004). "The identification of Naegleria fowleri from water and soil samples by nested PCR". Parasitology Research. 93 (3): 211–217. doi:10.1007/s00436-004-1104-x. PMID15138806. S2CID5972631.