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Abstract
Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a unicellular enteric fungal pathogen and the most common
cause of human microsporidiosis. The frequent detection of this organism in animals,
including companion animals, livestock and wildlife, has raised the question of the
importance of animal reservoirs in the epidemiology of this pathogen. A partial sequence
of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) has been widely used as a genetic
marker for studying the molecular epidemiology of E. bieneusi. With the aim of comparing
E. bieneusi ITS genotypes originating from different host species, and assess the
potential for zoonotic transmission, E. bieneusi ITS sequences retrieved from GenBank
were analyzed using two metrics of diversity, rarefaction and phylogenetic distance.
In spite of the human ITS sample being geographically more diverse, ITS sequence diversity
in animals exceeded that of humans. In both host groups much of the ITS diversity
remains to be sampled. Using quantitative phylogenetic tests we found evidence for
a partial but significant segregation of E. bieneusi ITS sequences according to host
species. Host-specific segregation was confirmed by hierarchical analysis of molecular
variation. To improve our understanding of the epidemiology of human microsporidiosis
and strengthen the study of E. bieneusi populations, efforts to genotype additional
E. bieneusi isolates from wildlife and companion animals should be prioritized and
the geographic and species diversify of animal samples should be increased. Due to
the possibility of genetic recombination in this species, additional unlinked genetic
markers need to be developed and included in future studies.
Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.