Authors

D P Blake¹; E L Clark²; E Pegg¹; F M Tomley¹;  ¹ Royal Veterinary College;  ² The Roslin Institute

Discussion

Apicomplexan parasites can cause serious human and animal disease. Experimental vaccines have been described for many, but translation to the field has been hindered by naturally occurring genetic diversity and incompatible population structure. For apicomplexans such as Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii studies have yielded notable insights but for Eimeria, cause of the disease coccidiosis, almost nothing is known.

If recombinant vaccines effective against these pathogens are to be successful it will be essential to understand the occurrence of genetic and population diversity. In response to this knowledge deficit a global panel of Eimeria tenella isolates have been SNP genotyped using Sequenom, revealing notable variation in haplotype diversity and population structure with a North/South regional divide. While these data are informative, expanding research to E. tenella in other regions and laboratories requires a more accessible technique. One example is PCR-RFLP. Here, we have converted a subset of the Sequenom markers for use as PCR-RFLPs and re-analysed the original dataset for the PCR-RFLP panel to assess its utility. Application of the PCR-RFLPs to E. tenella collected from UK poultry revealed tightly restricted haplotype diversity. The tools described here can be used to enhance understanding of E. tenella genetic diversity and population structure.