Division and morphogenesis of Cryptobia catostomi (Protozoa: Kinetoplastida) in the blood of white sucker (Catostomus commersoni)

Abstract

Cryptobia catostomi multiplied in the blood of the white sucker (Catostomus commersoni) by longitudinal binary fission. The first indication of division was the production of two flagella followed by incomplete nuclear division. By this time the blepharoplast had divided. Each daughter blepharoplast, which gave rise to an old and a new flagellum, migrated to either end of the body. The kinetoplast then divided. The chromatin strand connecting the two nuclei disappeared and the organism completed division giving rise to two specimens.By following the course of infection in a mature white sucker it was observed that type III specimens were most abundant when the parasite population was increasing. As the population leveled off to a plateau, the numbers of type III decreased and were replaced by type II and eventually type I specimens.