Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 103, Issue 27, Pages 10514-10519Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0510319103
Keywords
clonal population structure; genetic recombination; virulence
Categories
Funding
- Intramural NIH HHS [Z01 AI005093] Funding Source: Medline
- NIAID NIH HHS [F32AI60306, AI05093, R01 AI045806, R01 AI041014, R01 AI036629, AI41014, R21 AI045806, R37 AI021423, R01 AI021423, F32 AI060306, AI045806, AI21423] Funding Source: Medline
- Wellcome Trust Funding Source: Medline
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Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate intracellular protozoan of the phylum Apicomplexa, is estimated to infect over a billion people worldwide as well as a great many other mammalian and avian hosts. Despite this ubiquity, the vast majority of human infections in Europe and North America are thought to be due to only three genotypes. Using a genome-wide analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, we have constructed a genealogy for these three lines. The data indicate that types I and III are second- and first-generation offspring, respectively, of a cross between a type II strain and one of two ancestral strains. An extant T. gondii strain (P89) appears to be the modern descendant of the non-type II parent of type III, making the full genealogy of the type III clonotype known. The simplicity of this family tree demonstrates that even a single cross can lead to the emergence and dominance of a new clonal genotype that completely alters the population biology of a sexual pathogen.
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