Molecular dissection of laboratory contamination between two schistosome populations
We were able to detect contamination in this case because SmBRE shows distinctive phenotypes. However, this would likely have been missed with phenotypically similar parasites. These results provide a cautionary tale about the importance of tracking the identity of parasite populations, but also showcase a simple approach to monitor changes within populations using molecular profiling of pooled population samples to characterize single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We also show that genetic drift results in continuous change even in the absence of contamination, causing parasites maintained in different labs (or sampled from the same lab at different times) to diverge.
Authors
- Tim Anderson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0191-0204)
- Roy N. Platt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9754-5765)
- JUTZELER Kathrin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3687-4020)
- Robbie Diaz
- Winka Le Clecʼh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1111-2492)
- Frédéric D. Chevalier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2611-8106)
- Xue Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7501-4445)
- Madison Morales
Institutions
- Texas Biomedical Research Institute (US)
- The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (US)
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (US)
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Parasites & Vectors
- Published
- 2024-12-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-024-06588-9
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Parasites and Host Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.03
Funders
- Texas Biomedical Research Institute
- National Institutes of Health
- National Center for Research Resources
- Office of Research Infrastructure Programs, National Institutes of Health