If you are a student or young scientist interested in intestinal parasites and/or infectious disease/molecular epidemiology, why not take to Blastocystis subtyping? It's easy, quick, cheap, and you are guaranteed results. You don't have to sit around and wait for positive samples.
And, best of all: Your data will make a difference!
Once you have your "barcode" sequence(s), you just paste them into the box as described below in the post "Is Blastocystis Zoonotic?", and you will get subtype and allele data right there, without having to consult other resources. However, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with essential papers such as
Noel et al. (2005)
Scicluna et al. (2006)
Stensvold et al. (2007)
So, how do you get your sequences? Well, you can use DNAs extracted directly from faecal samples (faecal DNAs) or from cultures (I will soon post a note on Blastocystis culture). Multiple PCRs have been described for genetic characterisation of Blastocystis, and most of them target the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene (18S).
For a variety of reasons (which we are currently listing in an upcoming review - watch out for it!), we recommend using the barcoding approach launched by Scicluna et al. (2006). The RD5 primer combined with BhRDr amplifies a region of approximately ~600 bp, which is usually sufficient to distinguish between subtypes.
Substantial sampling has been done in Europe, while data from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas are scarce. Sampling from animals is also highly warranted, especially from rodents, since this group appears to constitute a potential reservoir for human ST4.
In your search for subtypes, it is not unlikely that you will stumble upon what appears to be a new subtype, especially if you are analysing samples from animals. In that case, we recommened that you sequence the entire SSU rRNA gene. Using faecal DNA, this can be challenging (but possible!), so if you have the isolate in culture, then DNA should be extracted from the isolate and used instead to save money and effort. We are about to come up with some thoughts on how to determine whether a sequence represents a new subtype. Stay tuned!
And, best of all: Your data will make a difference!
Once you have your "barcode" sequence(s), you just paste them into the box as described below in the post "Is Blastocystis Zoonotic?", and you will get subtype and allele data right there, without having to consult other resources. However, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with essential papers such as
Noel et al. (2005)
Scicluna et al. (2006)
Stensvold et al. (2007)
So, how do you get your sequences? Well, you can use DNAs extracted directly from faecal samples (faecal DNAs) or from cultures (I will soon post a note on Blastocystis culture). Multiple PCRs have been described for genetic characterisation of Blastocystis, and most of them target the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene (18S).
For a variety of reasons (which we are currently listing in an upcoming review - watch out for it!), we recommend using the barcoding approach launched by Scicluna et al. (2006). The RD5 primer combined with BhRDr amplifies a region of approximately ~600 bp, which is usually sufficient to distinguish between subtypes.
Substantial sampling has been done in Europe, while data from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas are scarce. Sampling from animals is also highly warranted, especially from rodents, since this group appears to constitute a potential reservoir for human ST4.
In your search for subtypes, it is not unlikely that you will stumble upon what appears to be a new subtype, especially if you are analysing samples from animals. In that case, we recommened that you sequence the entire SSU rRNA gene. Using faecal DNA, this can be challenging (but possible!), so if you have the isolate in culture, then DNA should be extracted from the isolate and used instead to save money and effort. We are about to come up with some thoughts on how to determine whether a sequence represents a new subtype. Stay tuned!
