title: Genetic diversity of bovine Neospora caninum determined by microsatellite markers.
abstract: Neospora caninum is one of the most significant parasitic organisms causing bovine abortion worldwide. Despite the economic impact of this infection, relatively little is known about the genetic diversity of this parasite. In this study, using Nc5 and ITS1 nested PCR, N. caninum has been detected in 12 brain samples of aborted fetuses from 298 seropositive dairy cattle collected from four different regions in Tehran, Iran. These specimen (Nc-Iran) were genotyped in multilocus using 9 different microsatellite markers previously described (MS4, MS5, MS6A, MS6B, MS7, MS8, MS10, MS12 and MS21). Microsatellite amplification was completely feasible in 2 samples, semi-completely in 8 samples, and failed in 2 samples. Within the two completely performed allelic profiles of Nc-Iran strains, unique multilocus profiles were obtained for both and novel allelic patterns were found in the MS8 and MS10 microsatellite markers. The Jaccard's similarity index showed significant difference between these two strains and from other standard isolates derived from GenBank such as Nc-Liv, Nc-SweB1, Nc-GER1, KBA1, and KBA2. All samples originating from the same area showed identical allelic numbers and a correlation between the number of repeats and geographic districts was observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, United States. Electronic address: nsalehi@mtu.edu.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Salehi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gottstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Veterinary Medicine Faculty, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Haddadzadeh
mesh_terms: D000034:Abortion, Veterinary / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D018688:Neospora / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: Aborted fetuses; Genotyping; Microsatellite; Neospora caninum; PCR