''Balantidium'' is a genus of ciliates. It contains the parasitic species ''

Balantidium coli ''Balantidium coli'' is a parasitic species of ciliate alveolates that causes the disease balantidiasis. It is the only member of the ciliate phylum known to be pathogenic to humans. Morphology ''Balantidium coli'' has two developmental stage ...

'', the only known cause of

balantidiasis Balantidiasis is a protozoan infection caused by infection with ''Balantidium coli''. Symptoms and signs Usually asymptomatic in immunocompetent individuals, but the symptoms of balantidiasis include: * Intermittent diarrhea * Constipation * Vomi ...

History

The first-described species of ''Balantidium'', ''B. entozoon'', was described in 1838 by Ehrenberg as a member of the genus ''

Bursaria ''Bursaria'' is a genus of eight species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to Australia. They are shrubs or slender trees, often with spiny branches and have simple leaves, relatively small flowers with five sepals ...

''. ''Balantidium coli'' observed in patients with dysentery was originally described as ''Paramecium coli'' by Malmstein in 1857. In 1858, Edouard Claparède and

Johannes Lachmann Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as " John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, '' Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' ...

created the genus ''Balantidium'' and reclassified ''B. entozoon'' as its type species. Stein in 1863 reclassified ''Paramecium coli'' into the genus ''Balantidium''.

Transcriptomics

Transcriptome data for ''Balantidium ctenopharyngodoni'', from single-cell transcriptome sequencing, were published in 2017 and were the first omics 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 The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

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