Brian Fredericksen wrote:

>A contact I have in Oregon who says that Eric Olson is referring to
Nosema Ceranae.

Right, and nosema are not bacteria but microspodia

> Microsporidia are a large group of microbial eukaryotes composed exclusively of obligate intracellular parasites of other eukaryotes. Almost 150 years of microsporidian research has led to a basic understanding of many aspects of microsporidian biology, especially their unique and highly specialized mode of infection, where the parasite enters its host through a projectile tube that is expelled at high velocity. Molecular biology and genomic studies on microsporidia have also drawn attention to many other unusual features, including a unique core carbon metabolism and genomes in the size range of bacteria. These seemingly simple parasites were once thought to be the most primitive eukaryotes; however, we now know from molecular phylogeny that they are highly specialized fungi. The fungal nature of microsporidia indicates that microsporidia have undergone severe selective reduction permeating every level of their biology: From cell structures to metabolism, and from genomics to gene structure, microsporidia are reduced.

-- 
MICROSPORIDIA: Biology and Evolution of Highly Reduced Intracellular Parasites
Patrick J. Keeling, Naomi M. Fast
Annual Review of Microbiology, October 2002, Vol. 56, Pages 93-116

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