title: Sexual recombination and clonal evolution of virulence in Toxoplasma.
abstract: The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is endemic worldwide. For such a widespread pathogen that has few geographic or host boundaries, it possess an unexpected population structure comprised principally of three clonally propagated lineages. The origin and the evolutionary dynamics of these three lines are unclear. Recent population genetic analyses suggest that a meiotic recombination between two discrete gene pools produces a pandemic outbreak of three super-successful lines, which have recently come to dominate most other strains worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of British Columbia, 2733 Heather Street, BC, V5Z 3J5, Vancouver, Canada. mgrigg@interchange.ubc.ca
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Grigg
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008540:Meiosis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence