title: Detection of Babesia divergens using molecular methods in anemic patients in Shandong Province, China.
abstract: Babesiosis (piroplasmosis) is a zoonotic disease caused by an intraerythrocytic protozoan transmitted by Ixodes ticks. The aim of this study was to detect Babesia spp. infection using molecular methods in 377 blood samples from anemic patients. Sequence analysis showed that the 18S rRNA gene was 439 bases long by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and that the PCR products from the samples had an identical sequence (named Taian China, HM355854). BLAST search showed that the sequence was identical to the 18S rRNA sequences of Babesia divergens. The 18S rRNA sequence for Toxoplasma gondii was included as the outlier for phylogenetic analysis by using the program MEGA4.0 software. The results showed that the 18S rRNA gene sequences obtained from the present study was most closely related to B. divergens Switzerland (DQ312439) with 98.4% similarity (differing only by seven bases). The phylogenetic analysis also revealed that this sequence closely resembled B. divergens strains from other countries and belonged to the same clade. This is the first report of a human being infected by B. divergens in China.
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Research Center for Animal Disease Control Engineering Shandong Province, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an 271018, China.
authors.forename: Chunhua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jianzhu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ziqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhenyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Dubao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Shujing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tongjie
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000740:Anemia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology*; D001403:Babesia / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D016053:RNA, Protozoan; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S