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Sexual Transmission of American Trypanosomes from Males and Females to Naive Mates
Published on: January 27, 2019
Minicircle organization and diversity in Trypanosoma cruzi populations
Angela C V Junqueira1, Wim Degrave, Adeilton Brandão
1Departamento Medicina Tropical, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Avenida Brasil 4365, 21045-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Abstract:
Trypanosoma cruzi strains and isolates can be divided into at least two groups using biochemical and molecular markers such as isoenzymes, ribosomal DNA, mini-exon gene spacers and some maxicircle genes. Despite the accumulating evidence that these major groups are phylogenetically distinct, their kinetoplast minicircle overall organization (i.e. number of conserved regions per length of minicircle molecule) remains conserved in all T. cruzi isolates studied so far, including the two T. cruzi major lineages -T. cruzi I and T. cruzi II - and a third group of uncertain taxonomic status, T. cruzi ZIII. Thus far, despite the extensive intra- and inter-minicircle sequence polymorphism, no group clustering has been observed.
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