Abstract
Cryptosporidium wrairi was isolated from guinea pigs during a spontaneous outbreak of cryptosporidiosis. Despite the morphological and antigenic similarities to C. parvum, C. wrairi displayed a different host range and site of infection and may represent a separate species or sub- species. We used the polymerase chain reaction to clone two distinct 550 bp- long DNA fragments, Wc-I and Wc-II, of the gene encoding the Cryptosporidium oocyst wall protein (COWP) of C. wrairi, which showed 98% identity to the C. parvum homologue. Within Wc-I, polymorphic RsaI restriction sites were used to develop a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method able to distinguish C. wrairi from C. parvum and to identify two groups of C. parvum isolates differentially associated with animal and human infections.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 209-217 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | FEMS Microbiology Letters |
| Volume | 150 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 May 1997 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are extremely grateful to Dr. Clarence Chrisp, University of Michigan, for providing a sample of C. wrairi oocysts. We would also like to thank Drs. Giovanni Widmer, Tufts University, Edoardo Pozio, Istituto Superiore di Sanità and Luis Ortega-Mora, University of Madrid, for supplying us with C. parvum purified oocysts and Dr. Sheila Moran for assistance in the procedure of DNA extraction from faecal samples. This work was supported by the IX AIDS Research Program, Ministero della Sanità, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy and by the Commission of the European Communities, Programme Avicenna contract n. 107.
Keywords
- Cryptosporidium oocyst wall protein gene
- Cryptosporidium parvum
- Cryptosporidium wrairi
- Genetic marker
- Polymerase chain reaction