title: Rapid detection of Echinococcus species by a high-resolution melting (HRM) approach.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High-resolution melting (HRM) provides a low-cost, fast and sensitive scanning method that allows the detection of DNA sequence variations in a single step, which makes it appropriate for application in parasite identification and genotyping. The aim of this work was to implement an HRM-PCR assay targeting part of the mitochondrial cox1 gene to achieve an accurate and fast method for Echinococcus spp. differentiation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For melting analysis, a total of 107 samples from seven species were used in this study. The species analyzed included Echinococcus granulosus (n = 41) and Echinococcus ortleppi (n = 50) from bovine, Echinococcus vogeli (n = 2) from paca, Echinococcus oligarthra (n = 3) from agouti, Echinococcus multilocularis (n = 6) from monkey and Echinococcus canadensis (n = 2) and Taenia hydatigena (n = 3) from pig. DNA extraction was performed, and a 444-bp fragment of the cox1 gene was amplified. Two approaches were used, one based on HRM analysis, and a second using SYBR Green Tm-based. In the HRM analysis, a specific profile for each species was observed. Although some species exhibited almost the same melting temperature (Tm) value, the HRM profiles could be clearly discriminated. The SYBR Green Tm-based analysis showed differences between E. granulosus and E. ortleppi and between E. vogeli and E. oligarthra.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this work, we report the implementation of HRM analysis to differentiate species of the genus Echinococcus using part of the mitochondrial gene cox1. This method may be also potentially applied to identify other species belonging to the Taeniidae family.
authors: Guilherme Brzoskowski
authors: GB
authors: Santos
authors: Sergio Martín
authors: SM
authors: Espínola
authors: Henrique Bunselmeyer
authors: HB
authors: Ferreira
authors: Rogerio
authors: R
authors: Margis
authors: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15005, CEP 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. zaha@cbiot.ufrgs.br.
authors: Arnaldo
authors: A
authors: Zaha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000235:genetics; D004446:Echinococcus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D060005:Genotyping Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D010274:Parasitology / Q000379:methods*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D044366:Transition Temperature
chemical_list: D018509:DNA, Helminth; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV