METHODS: 152 H. contortus individual adult worms were collected from seven different geographical regions in China. The second internal transcribed spacer (ITS-2) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA and mitochondrial nicotinamide dehydrogenase subunit 4 gene (nad4) were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced directly. The sequence variations and population genetic diversities were determined.
RESULTS: Nucleotide sequence analyses revealed 18 genotypes (ITS-2) and 142 haplotypes (nad4) among the 152 worms, with nucleotide diversities of 2.6% and 0.027, respectively, consistent with previous reports from other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Sweden, the USA and Yemen. Population genetic analyses revealed that 92.4% of nucleotide variation was partitioned within populations; there was no genetic differentiation but a high gene flow among Chinese populations; some degree of genetic differentiation was inferred between some specimens from China and those from other countries.
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study of genetic variation within H. contortus in China. The results revealed high within-population variations, low genetic differentiation and high gene flow among different populations of H. contortus in China. The present results could have implications for studying the epidemiology and ecology of H. contortus in China.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the genetic diversity of V.cholerae in Sabah and whether V.cholerae in Sabah belong to atypical El Tor biotype.
METHODS: ERIC-PCR, a DNA fingerprinting method for bacterial pathogens based on the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence, was used to study the genetic diversity of 65 clinical V.cholerae O1 isolates from 3 districts (Kudat, Beluran, Sandakan) in Sabah and one environmental isolate from coastal sea water in Kudat district. In addition, we studied the biotype-specific genetic traits in these isolates to establish their biotype.
RESULTS: Different fingerprint patterns were seen in isolates from these three districts but one of the patterns was seen in more than one district. Clinical isolates and environmental isolate have different patterns. In addition, Sabah isolates harbor genetic traits specific to both classical biotype (ctxB-1, rstRCla) and El Tor biotype (rstRET, rstC, tcpAET, rtxC, VC2346).
CONCLUSION: This study revealed that V.cholerae in Sabah were genetically diverse and were atypical El Tor strains. Fingerprint patterns of these isolates will be useful in tracing the origin of this pathogen in the future.
RESULTS: The lysis buffer 2 (LB2) has been shown to be the best lysis buffer for DNA extraction from both raw and processed meat samples comparing to other lysis buffers tested. Hence, the LB2 has been found to be ideal to detect meat and porcine DNAs by real-time PCR using pairs of porcine specific primers and universal primers which amplified at 119 bp fragment and 93 bp fragment, respectively. This assay allows detection as low as 0.0001 ng of DNA. Higher efficiency and sensitivity of real-time PCR via a simplified DNA extraction method using LB2 have been observed, as well as a reproducible and high correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9979) based on the regression analysis of the standard curve have been obtained.
CONCLUSION: This study has established a fast, simple, inexpensive and efficient DNA extraction method that is feasible for raw and processed meat products. This extraction technique allows an accurate DNA detection by real-time PCR and can also be implemented to assist the halal authentication of various meat-based products available in the market. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.
Materials and Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from 21 fresh-frozen tumor tissues and blood samples of the same meningioma patients. The entire mtDNA D-loop region (positions 16024-576) was polymerase chain reaction amplified using designed primers, and then amplification products were purified before the direct DNA sequencing proceeds.
Results: Overall, 10 (47.6%) patients were detected to harbor a total of 27 somatic mtDNA D-loop mutations. Most of these mtDNA mutations were identified in the hypervariable segment II (40.7%), with 33.3% being located mainly in the conserved sequence block II of the D310 sequence. Furthermore, 58 different germline variations were observed at 21 nucleotide positions.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that mtDNA alterations in the D-loop region may be an important and early event in developing meningioma. Further studies are needed, including validation in a larger patient cohort, to verify the clinicopathological outcomes of mtDNA mutation biomarkers in meningiomas.