Dataset Information

The calmodulin intergenic spacer as molecular target for characterization of Leishmania species.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Human leishmaniasis is a neglected disease caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania. Clinical aspects of this disease can vary significantly, reflecting the wide range of parasites in the genus Leishmania. Knowing accurately the Leishmania species infecting humans is important for clinical case management and evaluation of epidemiological risk. Calmodulin is an essential gene in trypanosomatids that modulates the calcium metabolism in various cellular activities. Despite its strong conservation in trypanosomatids, it has been recently observed that its untranslated regions (UTR) diverge among species. METHODS: In this study we analyzed the sequences and the absolute dinucleotide frequency of the intergenic spacer of the calmodulin gene (containing both, 3' and 5'UTR) in nine reference Leishmania species and ten clinical isolates obtained from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis. RESULTS: We show that the short calmodulin intergenic spacers exhibit features that make them interesting for applications in molecular characterization and phylogenetic studies of Leishmania. Dendrograms based on sequence alignments and on the dinucleotide frequency indicate that this particular region of calmodulin gene might be useful for species typing between the Leishmania and Viannia subgenera. CONCLUSIONS: Mutations and composition of the calmodulin intergenic spacer from Leishmania species might have taxonomic value as parameters to define if an isolate is identical to a certain species or belongs to one of the two current subgenera.

SUBMITTER: Miranda A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4021611 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The calmodulin intergenic spacer as molecular target for characterization of Leishmania species.

Miranda Aracelis A Samudio Franklyn F Saldaña Azael A Castillo Juan J Brandão Adeilton A Calzada Jose E JE

Parasites & vectors 20140119

<h4>Background</h4>Human leishmaniasis is a neglected disease caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania. Clinical aspects of this disease can vary significantly, reflecting the wide range of parasites in the genus Leishmania. Knowing accurately the Leishmania species infecting humans is important for clinical case management and evaluation of epidemiological risk. Calmodulin is an essential gene in trypanosomatids that modulates the calcium metabolism in various cellular activities. Despite it ...[more]

PMID: 24438764

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND: The genus Vibrio is a diverse group of Gram-negative bacteria comprised of 74 species. Furthermore, the genus has and is expected to continue expanding with the addition of several new species annually. Consequently, it is of paramount importance to have a method which is able to reliably and efficiently differentiate the numerous Vibrio species. RESULTS: In this study, a novel and rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based intergenic spacer (IGS)-typing system for vibrios was developed that is based on the well-known IGS regions located between the 16S and 23S rRNA genes on the bacterial chromosome. The system was optimized to resolve heteroduplex formation as well as to take advantage of capillary gel electrophoresis technology such that reproducible analyses could be achieved in a rapid manner. System validation was achieved through testing of 69 archetypal Vibrio strains, representing 48 Vibrio species, from which an 'IGS-type' profile database was generated. These data, presented here in several cluster analyses, demonstrated successful differentiation of the 69 type strains showing that this PCR-based fingerprinting method easily discriminates bacterial strains at the species level among Vibrio. Furthermore, testing 36 strains each of V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus, important food borne pathogens, isolated from a variety of geographical locations with the IGS-typing method demonstrated distinct IGS-typing patterns indicative of subspecies divergence in both populations making this technique equally useful for intraspecies differentiation, as well. CONCLUSION: This rapid, reliable and efficient IGS-typing system, especially in combination with 16S rRNA gene sequencing, has the capacity to not only discern and identify vibrios at the species level but, in some cases, at the sub-species level, as well. This procedure is particularly well-suited for preliminary species identification and, lends itself nicely to epidemiological investigations providing information more quickly than other time-honoured methods traditionally used in these types of analyses.

Project description:Species of the genus Bartonella are currently recognized in growing numbers and are involved in an increasing variety of human diseases, mainly trench fever, Carrion's disease, bacillary angiomatosis, endocarditis, cat scratch disease, neuroretinitis, and asymptomatic bacteremia. Such a wide spectrum of infections makes it necessary to develop species and strain identification tools in order to perform phylogenetic and epidemiological studies. The 16S/23S rRNA intergenic spacer region (ITS) was sequenced for four previously untested species, B. vinsonii subsp. arupensis, B. tribocorum, B. alsatica, and B. koehlerae, as well as for 28 human isolates of B. quintana (most of them from French homeless people), six human or cat isolates of B. henselae, five cat isolates of B. clarridgeiae, and four human isolates of B. bacilliformis. Phylogenetic trees inferred from full ITS sequences of the 14 recognized Bartonella species using parsimony and distance methods revealed high statistical support, as bootstrap values were higher than those observed with other tested genes. Five well-supported lineages were identified within the genus and the proposed phylogenetic organization was consistent with that resulting from protein-encoding gene sequence comparisons. The ITS-derived phylogeny appears, therefore, to be a useful tool for investigating the evolutionary relationships of Bartonella species and to identify Bartonella species. Further, partial ITS amplification and sequencing offers a sensitive means of intraspecies differentiation of B. henselae, B. clarridgeiae, and B. bacilliformis isolates, as each strain had a specific sequence. The usefulness of this approach in epidemiological investigations should be highlighted. Among B. quintana strains, however, the genetic heterogeneity was low, as only three ITS genotypes were identified. It was nevertheless sufficient to show that the B. quintana population infecting homeless people in France was not clonal.

Dataset Information

The calmodulin intergenic spacer as molecular target for characterization of Leishmania species.

Publications

The calmodulin intergenic spacer as molecular target for characterization of Leishmania species.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure