''Τrypanosoma equiperdum'' is a species of

kinetoplastid Kinetoplastida (or Kinetoplastea, as a class) is a group of flagellated protists belonging to the phylum Euglenozoa, and characterised by the presence of an organelle with a large massed DNA called kinetoplast (hence the name). The organisms are ...

parasites that causes

Dourine Covering sickness, or dourine (French, from the Arabic ''darina'', meaning mangy (said of a female camel), feminine of ''darin'', meaning dirty), is a disease of horses and other members of the family Equidae. The disease is caused by '' Trypanosom ...

covering sickness Covering sickness, or dourine (French, from the Arabic ''darina'', meaning mangy (said of a female camel), feminine of ''darin'', meaning dirty), is a disease of horses and other members of the family Equidae. The disease is caused by '' Trypanosom ...

in horses and other animals in the family

equidae Equidae (sometimes known as the horse family) is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, asses, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils. All extant species are in the genus '' Equus'', ...

. ''T. equiperdum'' is the only trypanosome that is not spread by an insect

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

. There has been substantial controversy surrounding whether ''T. equiperdum'' should be considered a unique species, or a strain of '' T. evansi'' or '' T. brucei''. ''T. equiperdum'' is unique in that its

kinetoplast A kinetoplast is a network of circular DNA (called kDNA) inside a large mitochondrion that contains many copies of the mitochondrial genome. The most common kinetoplast structure is a disk, but they have been observed in other arrangements. Kinet ...

, the network of connected rings that make up its

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

, consists of thousands of "minicircles" that are identical in sequence.

References

External links

* Parasites of equines Parasitic excavates Trypanosomatida {{Excavata-stub ja:媾疫トリパノソーマ