Admixture and recombination among Toxoplasma gondii lineages explain global genome diversity.

ABSTRACT: Toxoplasma gondii is a highly successful protozoan parasite that infects all warm-blooded animals and causes severe disease in immunocompromised and immune-naïve humans. It has an unusual global population structure: In North America and Europe, isolated strains fall predominantly into four largely clonal lineages, but in South America there is great genetic diversity and the North American clonal lineages are rarely found. Genetic variation between Toxoplasma strains determines differences in virulence, modulation of host-signaling pathways, growth, dissemination, and disease severity in mice and likely in humans. Most studies on Toxoplasma genetic variation have focused on either a few loci in many strains or low-resolution genome analysis of three clonal lineages. We use whole-genome se

SUBMITTER: Minot S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3421188 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature