title: Natural and emergent Trypanosoma cruzi I genotypes revealed by mitochondrial (Cytb) and nuclear (SSU rDNA) genetic markers.
abstract: Chagas disease is a tropical and systemic disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. This parasite has been divided into six Discrete Typing Units (DTU's) due to its high genetic diversity. T. cruzi I (TcI) is the most prevalent DTU in Colombia and recently associated to cardiomyopathies. The aim of this study was to unravel the genetic variability among a set of 70 cell-single TcI clones from different geographical regions and hosts using the sequences of Cytb and SSU rDNA. The results showed two genotypes associated to transmission cycles of Chagas disease in Colombia and supports the previous descriptions using SL-IR. Phylogenetic networks were developed detecting recombination events within TcI. We also tested the phylogenetic relationships beneath TcI clones and TcIII/TcIV sequences observing the high relatedness of TcI clones from sylvatic cycle with TcIII/TcIV. We corroborate the high genetic diversity displayed by TcI, the plausible recombination within this DTU supporting the previous model of genetic exchange proposed in T. cruzi populations. We conclude inquiring the need to pursue new studies to elucidate the genetic structure of TcI across Chagas disease endemic countries.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Tropical, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de los Andes, Cra 1 No. 18A-20, Bogotá, Colombia. david-r@uniandes.edu.co
authors.forename: Juan David
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ramírez
authors.forename: María Clara
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Duque
authors.forename: Marleny
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Montilla
authors.forename: Zulma
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cucunubá
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guhl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000469:parasitology; D003105:Colombia; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics*; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics*; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D005819:Genetic Markers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000469:parasitology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D014225:Triatominae / Q000469:parasitology; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D005819:Genetic Markers; D045303:Cytochromes b