title: Strain differentiation in microsporidia.
abstract: 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 immnunocompromised 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Klinikum Innenstadt, University of Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rinder
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Katzwinkel-Wladarsch
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thomschke
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Löscher
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D016816:Microsporida / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity