Studies of the Ammonium in the Biochemistry, Metabolism, and Host Cell Interactions of Trichomonads

Under the Eugene M. Lang student/faculty research fellowship, I pursued studies in the significance of arginine and ammonium to the metabolism of trichomonads, Trichomonas foetus, a cattle strain and Trichomonas vaginalis, a human strain. Both parasites obtain energy by metabolizing arganine to ammonia in the arginine dihydrolase pathway. I demonstrated for the first time that the rate of metabolite flow through the arginine dihydrolase pathway can be determined by the measurements of ammonium ions or volatile ammonia production by cells. The specific mechanism of production ammonia remains to be determined. Our studies demonstrated that trichomonads thrive in high concentrations of ammonium that would be toxic to the tissues of their mammalian hosts