Toxoplasma gondii is remarkably unique in its ability to successfully infect vertebrate hosts from multiple phyla and can successfully infect most cells within these organisms. The infection outcome in each of these species is determined by the complex interaction between parasite and host genotype. As techniques to quantify global changes in cell function become more readily available and precise, new data are coming to light about how (i) different host cell types respond to parasitic infection and (ii) different parasite species impact the host. Here we focus on recent studies comparing the response to intracellular parasitism by different cell types and insights into understanding host-parasite interactions from comparative studies on T. gondii and its close extant relatives.

弓形虫的独特之处在于它能够成功感染多个门的脊椎动物宿主，并且能够成功感染这些生物体内的大多数细胞。每个物种的感染结果都是由寄生虫和宿主基因型之间复杂的相互作用决定的。随着量化细胞功能整体变化的技术变得更加容易获得和精确，新的数据逐渐揭示了（i）不同的宿主细胞类型对寄生虫感染的反应以及（ii）不同的寄生虫物种如何影响宿主。在这里，我们重点关注最近的研究，比较不同细胞类型对细胞内寄生的反应，并通过对弓形虫及其现存近亲的比较研究了解宿主与寄生虫的相互作用。