Authors

Discussion

Chagas Disease is a systemic and chronic disease caused by infection with kinoplast Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi is divided into 6 strains, and variation between these has been linked to variations in clinical presentations. With limited knowledge on diversity of certain DTUs, frequency of mixed infections, and hybrids in the wild, high resolution and low-cost genetic profiling methods are essential to understand disease associations and other important T. cruzi traits. Here we use a culture-free amplicon sequencing approach with a genome-wide locus sequence type panel to detect variation in four metapopulations of Trypanosoma cruzi, from triatomine vector Rhodniusprolixus in four Attalea butyracea palms in Colombia. All samples cluster with the diverse T. cruzi subpopulation, TcI, with evidence for gene flow between populations (F_ST = 0.065). We illustrate possible evidence for distinct mechanisms of reproduction to occur simultaneously in a metapopulation of T. cruzi.