Figure 3
![Figure 3](http://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1186%2F1471-2180-5-19/MediaObjects/12866_2004_Article_166_Fig3_HTML.jpg)
Eukaryotic pathogens. Eukaryotic pathogen life forms are clearly dominated by the fungi and protists. Within the Fungi, the phylum Ascomycota has many human, animal, and plant pathogens and is a major source of toxins. Protist species are responsible for globally important diseases such as the malaria-causing Plasmodium species and the Leishmania and Trypanosoma species that cause significant mortality in the developing world. The eukaryotic phylogeny tree is based on ribosomal and housekeeping gene sequence analysis [70], but different taxonomy levels are simultaneously represented as the topology has not yet been reliably determined.