''Balantidium'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
ciliate
The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a differen ...
s. It contains the parasitic species ''
Balantidium coli'', the only known cause of
balantidiasis.
History
The first-described species of ''Balantidium'', ''B. entozoon'', was described in 1838 by
Ehrenberg as a member of the genus ''
Bursaria''. ''Balantidium coli'' observed in patients with
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
was originally described as ''Paramecium coli'' by Malmstein in 1857. In 1858,
Edouard Claparède and
Johannes Lachmann created the genus ''Balantidium'' and reclassified ''B. entozoon'' as its type species.
Stein in 1863 reclassified ''Paramecium coli'' into the genus ''Balantidium''.
Transcriptomics
Transcriptome
The transcriptome is the set of all RNA transcripts, including coding and non-coding, in an individual or a population of cells. The term can also sometimes be used to refer to all RNAs, or just mRNA, depending on the particular experiment. The t ...
data for ''Balantidium ctenopharyngodoni'', from single-cell transcriptome sequencing, were published in 2017 and were the first
omics
The branches of science known informally as omics are various disciplines in biology whose names end in the suffix '' -omics'', such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, phenomics and transcriptomics. Omics aims at the collect ...
data within the subclass
Trichostomatia.
Taxonomy
A separate genus – ''
Neobalantidium'' – has been created for several of these species.
''Balantidium coli'' is one of the species that has been reclassified. It has also been proposed that it is a
junior synonym of genus ''
Balantioides'' which has ''B. coli'' as the type species.
The closest known relative of this genus is ''
Buxtonella sulcata'', a parasite of cattle.
Species
There are 72 species in the genus.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15149810
Ciliate genera
Litostomatea