Genotype distribution of T. cruzi lineage I in vectors, reservoirs and humans from endemic countries based on the sequence of the Spliced Leader intergenic spacer.

CURA C.; MEJÍA-JARAMILLO A.M.; BURGOS J.M.; DUFFY T.; DIOSQUE P.; CARDINAL M.V.; KJOS S.; DA SILVA A.; RUSSOMANDO G.; AZNAR C.; LEVIN M. J.; GURTLER R.; TRIANA-CHÁVEZ O.; SCHIJMAN A.G.

Armação dos Búzios, Río de Janeiro, Brasil.

Congreso; XIII International Congress of Protistology. XXV Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Protozoology. XXXVI Annual Meeting on Basic Research in Chagas´Disease; 2009

Brazilian Society of Protozoology (SBPZ)

Genotipic distribution of T. cruzI LINEAGE I in VECTORS, RESERVOIRS AND HUMANS FROM ENDEMIC COUNTRIES BASED ON THE SEQUENCE OF THE SPLICED LEADER INTERGENIC SPACER Cura C. 1, Mejía-Jaramillo A.M.2, Burgos J.1, Duffy T.1, Diosque P.3 , Cardinal, M.V.4,  Da Silva, A.5 ; Russomando, G.6, Aznar C. 7, Gurtler, R.4, Triana-Chávez O.2, Schijman A.G.*1 1.LabMECh, INGEBI-CONICET, Bs. As., Argentina. 2.Grupo de Chagas, Univ. de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. 3.Unidad de Epidemiología Molecular, IPE, UNSA, Salta, Argentina. 4. Laboratorio de Eco-Epidemiología, FCEYN, UBA, Argentina. 5. CDC, Atlanta. 6. Departamento de Biología Molecular, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Asunción, Paraguay 7. Laboratoire Hospitalier Cayenne, French Guiana. *schijman@dna.uba.ar Natural populations of T.cruzi are classified into two major groups T. cruzi I and II predominating in the northern and southern areas of Latin America, respectively. T. cruzi II has been divided into 5 discrete typing units (a-e) but the high heterogeneity of T.cruzi I hampered DTUs assessment. In 2007, Herrera et al. proposed 4 T.cruzi I haplotypes in Colombia, identified by SNPs and insertions/deletions within a motif at the intergenic spacer of spliced-leader genes (SL-IR), recently named as TcI a–d by Falla et al, 2009. We aimed to characterize this polymorphism in T.cruzi I samples infecting faeces of Rhodnius, Pastrongylus and Triatoma bugs, wild reservoirs and blood and tissues from patients of different endemic areas. The SL-IR was amplified by PCR from 73 samples. PCR with primers UTCC/Tc2 (475 bp) was applied in culture stocks and heminested-PCR with primers TCC/Tc2 (350 bp) in clinical samples. Purified amplicons were sequenced for alignment using MEGA 4.0. Five Argentinean stocks were Tc Ia and 11 Tc Id. It is worthnoting that Tc Ia or Id was detected in blood from Chagas Heart disease patients but only Tc Id in cardiac tissues from explants (4/4), even in a case with mixed Tc Ia/d infection. Three Brazilian stocks, 3 from French Guiana and 5 from Paraguay were Tc Id. Three from Mexico and one from Chile were Tc Ia. Among 37 Colombian strains, 6 were Tc Ia, 17 Tc Id and 14 Tc Ib. Interestingly, 4 samples from Argentina and 1 from Bolivia had a novel motif, named Tc Ie. In conclusion, we found association of Tc Ia with domestic cycles, Tc Ib mainly with sylvatic and peridomestic habitats of Colombia, 61% of Tc Id with sylvatic cycles but cardiac histotropism in Chagas heart patients, and Tc Ie with domestic cycle in Argentina and Bolivia. Tc Ic was not found in our population. Supported by PICT 33955; PIP 2008, CONICET, Argentina; Colciencias, Colombia.