apicomplexan

Any of a phylum (Apicomplexa) of protozoans that are parasitic in animals, especially animal bloodstreams, and are distinguished by a variety of organelles, including fibrils and microtubules, located at one end (called the apical end) of the cell. These organelles help the apicomplexan invade an animal cell. Apicomplexans form spores and reproduce sexually in an alternation of generations; many have complex life cycles and are transmitted to animals hosts by bloodsucking insects. Apicomplexans include the organisms that were once classified as sporozoans, including the protozoans that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis.

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Electron microscopy showed that the ARL-V/type-N cells have many features typical of apicomplexan cells.

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Many apicomplexan parasites live in the dark, but they contain the vestige of a plastid6, a DNA-containing structure found in plant and algal cells that is required for photosynthesis.

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Apicomplexan plastids are non-photosynthetic, but they have retained some biochemical pathways that are found alongside the light-processing pathways in photosynthetic plastids.

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Shared elements of host-targeting pathways among apicomplexan parasites of differing lifestyles.

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They sort of look like torpedoes: Structure of a generalised apicomplexan in its invasion form.