Chapter category:
Genomic Rearrangements: A Bubbling Source of Information for the Molecular Epidemiology of Trypanosomatids
The Molecular Epidemiology of Trypanosomes and Leishmania
Edited by: Geoff HideISBN: 1-58706-109-0
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Chapter authors:
Jean-Claude Dujardin
During recent years, molecular epidemiology emerged from the integration between molecular biology into traditional epidemiologic research (http://www.pitt.edu/~kkr/task.html). This integration represents one of the richnesses of this new discipline, but also constitutes a major challenge, molecular biologists and epidemiologists often being characterised by a different vision of the reality: to caricature, ‘myopy’ and ‘presbyopy’ respectively. Waiting for sufficient hybrids between these two scientists, communication needs to be optimal among them. The (re)emergence and spreading of several infectious diseases—among others caused by trypanosomatids—raises numerous questions stimulating this dialog. A key issue in addressing them is the selection of genetic targets able to generate informative epidemiologic answers. For instance, detecting drug-resistant parasites requires the identification of features directly linked to the phenotype, while molecular tracking needs highly polymorphic markers, in order to distinguish different strains. The appropriateness of a given genetic marker for addressing epidemiological issues may thus depend among others on its nature (coding or not), its variation rate and the significance of this variation (neutral or functional). The genetic markers addressed indirectly or directly by most current methods (Multi-locus enzyme electrophoresis, MLEE; Restriction fragment length polymorphism, RFLP; PCR-RFLP, Random amplified polymorphic DNA, RAPD; allele specific PCR, AS-PCR; DNA sequencing) are essentially based on DNA sequence variation, which is occurring most often by point mutations. Genetic distances calculated by each of these methods were shown to be significantly correlated in Trypanosomatids with an inherent risk of redundancy among corresponding information. An alternative might be to study how the DNA sequences themselves are (re) arranged. Indeed, this was shown in Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes to be of evolutionary and functional importance. The purpose of this paper is to review the most recent findings on genomic organisation of Trypanosomatids and the epidemiologic applications brought by studies on genome rearrangements.
Jean-Claude Dujardin
Prince Leopold Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde, Unit
of Molecular Parasitology
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During recent years, molecular epidemiology emerged from the integration between molecular biology into traditional epidemiologic research (http://www.pitt.edu/~kkr/task.html). This integration repres...
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