History
The organism was first recognised in a mouse by Miescher in 1843. His findings were not recognised as a protist initially and the literature referred to the structures he described as "Miescher's Tubules". Incidentally Miescher's son — Johann Friedrich Miescher — discovered DNA. Similar structures were found in pig muscle in 1865 but these remained unnamed until 1899 when the name Sarcocystis meischeriana was proposed to identify them.
Initially it was unclear whether these organisms were fungi or protozoa. This uncertainty was resolved in 1967 when electron microscopic studies showed that these organism were protozoa related to Toxoplasma and Eimeria. The life cycle remained unknown until 1970 when bradyzoites from sarcocysts in bird muscles were inoculated into cultured mammalian cells and underwent development into sexual stages and oocysts. Transmission studies with the three morphotypes found in cattle then considered a single species - Sarcoplasma fusiformis - in dogs, cats and humans revealed that these were three different species now named Sarcoplasma bovicanis, Sarcoplasma bovifelis and Sarcoplasma bovihominis.
Read more about this topic: Sarcocystis
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