Genome-wide intraspecific diversity in Echinococcus multolocularis
Echinococcus multilocularis is one of the most threatening parasitic zoonoses of the northern hemisphere and is the causative agent of human cancerous alveolar echinococcosis (AE). The life cycle of the parasite includes canids as the main definitive hosts, which are responsible for shedding of potentially infective eggs into environment. A wide range of small mammals, mainly Arvicola spp, Microtus spp and Lagomorpha of the genus Ochotona serve as intermediate hosts. This means that the larval stage of this parasite causes alveolar echinococcosis (AE) in the liver or lungs.  Understanding the spatial genetic population structure of the parasite associated with intraspecific genomic variation is very important from an epidemiological point of view. Knowledge of genome-wide intraspecific conserved and polymorphic regions can help to identify new molecular markers. These can then be used to develop and optimize molecular tools for various diagnostic and epidemiological purposes. However, to date, there are no such whole genome data from E. multilocularis available for this purpose.  The aim of the present pilot study was therefore to assess genome-wide genetic diversity among different E. multilocularis isolates.  To this end, six E. multilocularis worm isolates obtained from different regions in Germany (Federal states of Thuringia, Brandenburg and Westphalia), were used and DNA samples of these isolates were subjected to whole genome sequencing using the Illumina NextSeq platform. For each of the E. multilocularis isolate, the mapped reads covered over 99% of the reference genome (Version: 2015-12-WormBase) with a read depth of > 20X per base. This pilot study demonstrated considerable genetic variation among genomes of six worm isolates collected from different regions in Germany and helped to provide new insights into the population structure of E. multilocularis parasite on the whole genome level.
Echinococcus multilocularis is one of the most threatening parasitic zoonoses of the northern hemisphere and is the causative agent of human cancerous alveolar echinococcosis (AE). The life cycle of the parasite includes canids as the main definitive hosts, which are responsible for shedding of potentially infective eggs into environment. A wide range of small mammals, mainly Arvicola spp, Microtus spp and Lagomorpha of the genus Ochotona serve as intermediate hosts. This means that the larval stage of this parasite causes alveolar echinococcosis (AE) in the liver or lungs.  Understanding the spatial genetic population structure of the parasite associated with intraspecific genomic variation is very important from an epidemiological point of view. Knowledge of genome-wide intraspecific conserved and polymorphic regions can help to identify new molecular markers. These can then be used to develop and optimize molecular tools for various diagnostic and epidemiological purposes. However, to date, there are no such whole genome data from E. multilocularis available for this purpose.  The aim of the present pilot study was therefore to assess genome-wide genetic diversity among different E. multilocularis isolates.  To this end, six E. multilocularis worm isolates obtained from different regions in Germany (Federal states of Thuringia, Brandenburg and Westphalia), were used and DNA samples of these isolates were subjected to whole genome sequencing using the Illumina NextSeq platform. For each of the E. multilocularis isolate, the mapped reads covered over 99% of the reference genome (Version: 2015-12-WormBase) with a read depth of > 20X per base. This pilot study demonstrated considerable genetic variation among genomes of six worm isolates collected from different regions in Germany and helped to provide new insights into the population structure of E. multilocularis parasite on the whole genome level.
fli institute of epidemiology