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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2000, p. 3815-3821, Vol. 38, No. 10
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Molecular Epidemiology of Entamoeba spp.: Evidence of a Bottleneck (Demographic Sweep) and Transcontinental Spread of Diploid Parasites

Sudip Ghosh,1 Marta Frisardi,1 Lynn Ramirez-Avila,1 Steven Descoteaux,1 Katherine Sturm-Ramirez,1 Oscar Alberto Newton-Sanchez,2 Jose Ignacio Santos-Preciado,2,dagger Chaiti Ganguly,3 Anuradha Lohia,3 Sharon Reed,4 and John Samuelson1,*

Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts1; Division of Infectious Disease, Hospital Infantil, Mexico City, D.F., Mexico2; Department of Biochemistry, Bose Institute, Calcutta, India3; and Department of Medicine and Pathology, UCSD Medical Center, San Diego, California4

Received 21 December 1999/Returned for modification 25 May 2000/Accepted 9 June 2000

Entamoeba histolytica causes amebic colitis and liver abscess in developing countries such as Mexico and India. Entamoeba dispar is morphologically identical but is not associated with disease. Here we determined the ploidy of E. histolytica and developed PCR-based methods for distinguishing field isolates of E. histolytica or E. dispar. Fluorescence in situ hybridization showed that E. histolytica trophozoites are diploid for five "single-copy" probes tested. Intergenic sequences between superoxide dismutase and actin 3 genes of clinical isolates of E. histolytica from the New and Old Worlds were identical, as were those of E. dispar. These results suggest a bottleneck or demographic sweep in entamoebae which infect humans. In contrast, E. histolytica and E. dispar genes encoding repeat antigens on the surface of trophozoites (Ser-rich protein) or encysting parasites (chitinase) were highly polymorphic. chitinase alleles suggested that the early axenized strains of E. histolytica, HM-1 from Mexico City, Mexico, and NIH-200 from Calcutta, India, are still present and that similar E. dispar parasites can be identified in both the New and Old Worlds. Ser-rich protein alleles, which suggested the presence of the HM-1 strain in Mexico City, included some E. histolytica genes that predicted Ser-rich proteins with very few repeats. These results, which suggest diversifying selection at chitinase and Ser-rich protein loci, demonstrate the usefulness of these alleles for distinguishing clinical isolates of E. histolytica and E. dispar.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. Phone: (617) 432-4670. Fax: (617) 738-4914. E-mail: jsamuels{at}hsph.harvard.edu.

dagger Present address: The National Immunization Council and The National Child Health Program, CONAVA, Mexico City, D.F., Mexico.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2000, p. 3815-3821, Vol. 38, No. 10
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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