Entamoeba moshkovskii is considered to be primarily a free-living amoeba. It is indistinguishable in both its cyst and trophozoite forms from Entamoeba histolytica (the cause of invasive amoebiasis) and Entamoeba dispar (a common non-invasive parasite), and it is closely related to these based on rDNA studies.E. moshkovskii has been shown to infect humans rarely but it appears to be ubiquitous in anoxic sediments around the world. Although the early isolations of this species were from sewage, E. moshkovskii can also be found in environments ranging from clean riverine sediments to brackish coastal pools. Human isolates of E. moshkovskii have never been associated with disease. The strain being studied is FIC, which was isolated from sewage in Canada.

As part of the comparative Entamoeba sequencing project we have produced 10,000 sequences from E. moshkovskii. These raw sequence reads are now available for FTP download and BLAST searching. We hope to produce another 10,000 sequences.