Comprehensive Description

Description of Acanthamoebidae

Amoebae more or less triangular to trapezoidal, somewhat flattened with flexible, slender, tapering subpseudopodia from the hyaline marigin. These subpseudopodia may branch near their base. Several to many tapering subpseudopodia (acanthopodia) produced from a broad hyaline zone. Cytoplasm frequently with small lipid globules. Cysts common, with or without pores.


Source: BioPedia


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Acanthamoebidae is a family of single celled eukaryotes within the group Amoebozoa.

It gets its name from Acanthamoeba, its best known member. However, it also includes other species, such as Comandonia operculata, Balamuthia mandrillaris and Protacanthamoeba bohemica.[1] Many kinds of Acanthamoebidae are highly prevalent in the soil and water of a variety of environments.[2][3] They are similar to Hartmannella, but have differently structured pseudopodia, in regard to the actin microfilaments that comprise them. Its most prominent member, Acanthamoeba, can be potentially pathogenic to humans and animals.[3]

It has been described as having a common origin with Entamoebidae and Dictyosteliida.[4]


Members of Acanthamoebidae have a specific form of pseudopodia, dubbed acanthopodia.[5] These acanthopodia are continuously formed and reabsorbed, protrude from every area of the body’s surface, and are usually, though not without exception, short and fine. An exception would be A. astronyxis and A. comandoni, in which the acanthopodia may be quite long.[5] Sawyer and Griffin point out “Bundles of actin microfilaments extend as rigid cores into acanthopodia”.[5] They are constantly formed and reabsorbed to induce locomotion, during which time the cell is typically triangular or cone shaped.[5] The advancing acanthopodia are “wide and tongue-shaped, with irregular margins and filopodia.”[5] Sawyer and Griffin also note that the many acanthopodia contain axial bundles of the actin microfilaments, resulting in the irregular shape of the pseudopodia.[5] In regards to the typical physical size of the Acanthamoebidae family, they rarely grow larger than 65 µm or are smaller than 30 µm.[5]


The family of Acanthamoebidae is within the amoebozoa group, which in turn is within the domain of eukaryota. Within the family Acanthamoebidae are the genera Acanthamoeba, Comandonia, and Protacanthamoeba, among others.


Members of Acanthamoebidae are highly prevalent in a variety of environments. In Osaka Prefecture, Japan, members of Acanthamoebidae (as well as Naegleria) were found in 68.7% of tap water samples taken, despite purification.[2] Acanthamoebidae was also found in the St. Martin River near Ocean City, Maryland, and is very common in the surface waters of many oceans.[3]


The most prominent member of Acanthamoebidae, Acanthamoeba, can be potentially pathogenic to humans and animals.[3] Typically, a person or animal with a normally functioning immune system can avoid infection; Edagawa et al. states, Acanthamoeba "are known to be the opportunistic pathogens in granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE), a chronic disease of immuno-compromised hosts such as AIDS patients and transplants recipients.”[2] GAE is the result of microscopic cysts that form in the central nervous system. Acanthamoeba can also be the source of infections in the lungs, sinuses, skin, and eyes.[2]


  1. ^ "www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov". Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  2. ^ a b c d Edagawa, Akiko; Akio Kimura; Takako Kawabuchi-Kurata; Yashiro Kusuhara; Panagio Karanis (2009). "Isolation and Genotyping of Potentially Pathogenic Acanthamoeba and Naegleria Species from Tap-water Sources in Osaka, Japan". Parasitology Research 105 (4): 1109–1117. doi:10.1007/s00436-009-1528-4. PMID 19565268. 
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Earl; Thomas Sawyer (1979). "Acanthamoeba tubiashi n. sp., a New Species of Fresh-Water Amoebida (Acanthamoebidae)". Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 98 (4): 543–549. doi:10.2307/3225905. 
  4. ^ Odronitz F, Kollmar M; Kollmar (2007). "Drawing the tree of eukaryotic life based on the analysis of 2,269 manually annotated myosins from 328 species". Genome Biol. 8 (9): R196. doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-9-r196. PMC 2375034. PMID 17877792. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Sawyer, Thomas; Joe Griffin (1975). "A Proposed New Family, Acanthamoebidae n. fam. (Order Amoebida), for Certain Cyst-Forming Filose Amoebae". Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 94 (1): 93–98. 

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