Nematocida parisii is a parasitic species of Microsporidia fungi found in wild isolates of the common nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans.
[4] The spores are believed to exit cells by disrupting a conserved cytoskeletal structure in the intestine called the terminal web.
Microsporidia have been found in several nematodes isolated from different locations, indicating that they are common natural parasites of C. elegans.
[2] The tube helps the sporoplasm turn itself inside out in order to get close enough to the host cell to infect it.
These related species are being used to study the host and pathogen mechanisms responsible for allowing or blocking eukaryotic parasite growth in different tissue niches.