Highly sensitive non-isotopic restriction endonuclease fingerprinting of nucleotide variability in the gp60 gene within Cryptosporidium species, genotypes and subgenotypes infective to humans, and its implications

Abstract

The high-resolution analysis of genetic variation has major implications for the identification of parasites andmicro-organisms to species and subspecies as well as for population genetic and epidemiological studies. In this study, we critically assessed the effectiveness of a PCR-based restriction endonuclease fingerprinting (REF)method for the detection of mutations in the 60 kDa glycoprotein gene (gp60) of Cryptosporidium, a genus of parasitic protists of major human and animal health importance globally. This gene displays substantial intraspecific variability in sequence, particularly in a TCA (perfect and imperfect) microsatellite region, is present as a single copy in the nuclear geno..