Specific probes for Trypanosoma (Trypanozoon) evansi based on kinetoplast DNA minicircles

Trypanosoma evansi is difficult to distinguish from other members of subgenus Trypanozoon, save for its inability to develop cyclically in the tsetse fly and its characteristic kinetoplast DNA (kDNA). We have used cloned kDNA minicircle fragments as specific probes to distinguish T. evansi from other trypanosomes of subgenus Trypanozoon. Two probes were required, each specific for one of the subgroups of T. evansi previously described. Probe A reacted only with the major isoenzyme group of T. evansi stocks, which have minicircle type A and occur in South America, Kenya, Sudan, Nigeria and Kuwait. The probe did not hybridise with various Trypanosoma brucei spp. stocks, Trypanosoma vivax, Trypanosoma congolense or Trypanosoma simiae, nor with trypanosomes of the minor isoenzyme group of T. evansi stocks found in Kenya with type B minicircles. Probe B was specific for the latter. The probes were sensitive down to a level of 100 trypanosomes in a dot blot. These probes thus provide a simple means of distinguishing T. evansi from T. brucei spp. using comparatively few trypanosomes and without resort to tsetse transmission experiments.