Genetic characterisation of Cryptosporidium from a wild population of eastern grey kangaroos Macropus giganteus inhabiting a water catchment

• Published in: Infection, genetics and evolution Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 59 - 67
• Main Authors: Power, Michelle L, Slade, Martin B, Sangster, Nicholas C, Veal, Duncan A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.03.2004
• Subjects: Animals; Base Sequence; Cryptosporidiosis - veterinary; Cryptosporidium; Cryptosporidium - classification; Cryptosporidium - genetics; Cryptosporidium oocyst wall protein; Environment; Feces - parasitology; Genetic Variation; Genotype; Genotypes; HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins - genetics; Humans; Macropodidae - parasitology; Macropus giganteus; Marsupials; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogenetic analyses; Phylogeny; Protozoan Proteins - genetics; rRNA 18S; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Cryptosporidium; Phylogenetic analyses; Marsupials; Genotypes
• ISSN: 1567-1348; 1567-7257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2004.01.002

Molecular characterisation of Cryptosporidium oocysts isolated from faeces collected from eastern grey kangaroos Macropus giganteus inhabiting an Australian water catchment revealed that this host was susceptible to three types of Cryptosporidium. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the 18S rDNA, Cryptosporidium oocyst wall protein (COWP) and a 70 kDa heat shock protein (HSP70) identified an isolate identical to the described Cryptosporidium ‘marsupial’ genotype. A second isolate had less than 0.5% variation, compared to the described Cryptosporidium ‘marsupial’ genotype, within the sequences of the 18S rDNA, COWP and HSP70 and 10% variation in the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1). Multilocus analysis of the third Cryptosporidium revealed a novel genotype that had a degree of genetic variation, at the four loci characterised, which was greater than or equivalent to that used to discriminate between currently recognised C ryptosporidium species. These findings have increased our current understanding on the molecular epidemiology of Cryptosporidium in Australian wildlife and have provided information on the types of Cryptosporidium marsupials may shed into the environment.