Entamoeba histolytica adaptation to glucose starvation: a matter of life and death

Parasites are often challenged by constant changes of the glucose concentration in their different hosts and/or within the different biotopes in the same host. During its life cycle, Entamoeba histolytica, the causative protozoan parasite of human amoebiasis, is exposed to both a glucose-poor environment in the colon and a glucose-rich environment in the liver. High-throughput 'omics' technologies are now widely used to characterize the cell's global response to various stresses and these technologies can survey E. histolytica's global response to fluctuations in glucose concentration in its environment. In this review, we discuss the phenotypic and metabolic responses of E. histolytica to glucose challenges, and compare these responses to those of other protozoan parasites.