Myxozoans are highly diverse and globally distributed cnidarian endoparasites in freshwater and marine habitats. They have adopted a heteroxenous life cycle, including invertebrate and fish hosts, and have been associated with diseases in aquaculture and wild fish stocks. Despite their importance, genomic resources of myxozoans have proven difficult to obtain due to their miniaturized and derived genome character and close associations with fish tissues. The first 'omic' datasets have now become the main resource for a better understanding of host-parasite interactions, virulence, and diversity, but also the evolutionary history of myxozoans. In this review, we discuss recent genomic advances in the field and outline outstanding questions to be answered with continuous and improved efforts of generating myxozoan genomic data.

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

References provided by Crossref.org

Method for Isolation of Myxozoan Proliferative Stages from Fish at High Yield and Purity: An Essential Prerequisite for In Vitro, In Vivo and Genomics-Based Research Developments

To React or Not to React: The Dilemma of Fish Immune Systems Facing Myxozoan Infections

Proteases as Therapeutic Targets Against the Parasitic Cnidarian Ceratonova shasta: Characterization of Molecules Key to Parasite Virulence In Salmonid Hosts