Strain Differentiation in Microsporidia

概要

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Microsporidia are obligate intracellular, spore-forming protozoa and are regarded as newly emerging pathogens. Enterocytozoon spp. as well as Encephalitozoon spp. are recognized as major aetiological agents in chronic diarrhoea of immunocompromized patients. The detection and differentiation of strains within microsporidial species is a prerequisite for the elucidation of their hitherto unknown reservoirs and their mode of transmission. In Enterocytozoon bieneusi, the most prevalent human-pathogenic microsporidium, 6 different genotypes of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the rRNA gene are known so far, with 12 polymorphic sites. This pathogen has infrequently been detected in 2 animal hosts only, pigs and rhesus macaques, and only the genotype of the latter has also been found in a human patient, too. Encephalitozoon cuniculi has a wider confirmed spectrum of animal hosts, but only one polymorphic site is known in the ITS, differing in 3 different numbers of a tetranucleotide repeat. Therefore, further genomic targets may have to be characterized, too. Few data are available on strain differentiation in Encephalitozoon intestinalis and E. hellem.
東海大学の論文
1998-08-29