Abstract
ATP is the key intermediate in the metabolism of parasites as it is in all other organisms. The eukaryotic parasites with which we are dealing have the enzymatic equipment for the generation of ATP by one or several pathways. Their location in the host, or in the external environment for free-living stages concerned in transmission, determines the substrates available for energy generation and in part the pathway of catabolism, whether through aerobic respiration or aerobic or anaerobic fermentation. A parasite residing in a nearly anaerobic environment may or may not require or utilize oxygen. Many such parasites are microaerophilic, requiring oxygen in small amounts. Conversely, parasites living in a relatively oxygen-rich medium, such as the vertebrate bloodstream, may nevertheless rely principally on glycolysis or other pathways rather than on the very efficient pathway involving the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the respiratory chain with a cytochrome as terminal oxidase. I will consider in detail several important examples of each type of energy-generating pathway.
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© 1986 Plenum Press, New York
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Trager, W. (1986). Metabolism. In: Living Together. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9465-9_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9465-9_9
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