Role As A Model Organism
Because Acanthamoeba does not differ greatly at the ultrastructural-level from a mammalian cell, it is an attractive model for cell biology studies. Acanthamoeba is important in cellular microbiology, environmental biology, physiology, cellular interactions, molecular biology, biochemistry, and evolutionary studies, due to the organisms' versatile roles in the ecosystem and ability to capture prey by phagocytosis, act as vectors and reservoirs for microbial pathogens, and to produce serious human infections. In addition, Acanthamoeba has been used extensively to understand the molecular biology of cell motility.
Owing to its ease and economy of cultivation, the Neff strain of A. castellanii discovered in a pond in Golden Gate Park in the 1960s, has been effectively used as a classic model organism in the field of cell biology. From just 30 liters of simple medium inoculated with A. castellanii, approximately one kilogram of cells can be obtained after several days of aerated culture at room temperature. Pioneered in the laboratory of Dr. Edward D. Korn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), many important biological molecules have been discovered and their pathways elucidated using the Acanthamoeba model. Dr. Thomas Dean Pollard applied this model at the NIH, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to discover and characterize many proteins that are essential for cell motility, not only in amoebas, but also in many other eukaryotic cells, especially those of the human nervous and immune systems, the developing embryo, and cancer cells.
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