Babesia microti from humans and ticks hold a genomic signature of strong population structure in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Babesia microti is an emerging tick-borne apicomplexan parasite with increasing geographic range and incidence in the United States. The rapid expansion of B. microti into its current distribution in the northeastern USA has been due to the range expansion of the tick vector, Ixodes scapularis, upon which the causative agent is dependent for transmission to humans.

Results

To reconstruct the history of B. microti in the continental USA and clarify the evolutionary origin of human strains, we used multiplexed hybrid capture of 25 B. microti isolates obtained from I. scapularis and human blood. Despite low genomic variation compared with other Apicomplexa, B. microti was strongly structured into three highly differentiated genetic clusters in the northeastern USA. B

SUBMITTER: Carpi G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5100190 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature