Intragenomic sequence variation of the ITS-1 region within a single flow-cytometry-counted Cyclospora cayetanensis
Diana K Riner1, Tonya Nichols, Sasha Y Lucas
1Pegasus Technical Services Inc., 46 East Hollister St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45219, USA.
Abstract:
Cyclospora cayetanensis, a protozoan of emerging concern, causes self-limiting gastroenteritis in immune-competent hosts. It has been established that sequence variability exists in the first internal transcribed spacer region (ITS-1) of the ribosomal DNA operon from collections of oocysts obtained from individual or pooled fecal samples. To determine if single oocysts also exhibited ITS-1 sequence variability, DNA was extracted from individually flow-cytometry-counted oocysts. We determined that ITS-1 sequence variability exists at an individual-genome level for C. cayetanensis and approached or exceeded the variability exhibited among oocyst collections. ITS-1 variability, at the genome level, reduces this region's utility for inferring relationships between strains.
