Differentiating Dracunculus medinensis from D. insignis, by the sequence analysis of the 18S rRNA gene.

[dracunculiasis]

This study , undertaken as a component of the global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program (DEP ), was designed to provide molecular tools to distinguish Dracunculus medinensis , the nematode causing human dracunculiasis , from other tissue-dwelling nematodes , including other Dracunculus species that infect humans and other animals . DNA was extracted from D . medinensis and from a closely related species that infects North American carnivores , D . insignis , so that the genes coding for the small -subunit ribosomal RNA (18 S rRNA ) of the parasites could be amplified , sequenced and compared . Sequences were obtained for 20 specimens of D . medinensis (from humans in Pakistan , Yemen and six African countries endemic for dracunculiasis ) and three of D . insignis (from raccoons trapped in the state of Georgia in the southern U .S .A .). All of the D . medinensis 18 S-rRNA sequences were found to be 1819 bases long and identical . The three D . insignis 18 S-rRNA sequences were also found to be identical to each other but were 1821 bases long and differed from the D . medinensis 18 S- rRNA sequence at eight positions (representing a difference of 0 .44 %). The 18 S-rRNA coding region of a Guinea worm extracted from a dog in Ghana was indistinguishable from that of the D . medinensis isolates from human cases . These results provide the basis for the molecular differentiation of D . medinensis that will permit the DEP to determine , rapidly and accurately , whether a worm recovered from an area considered dracunculiasis -free is a specimen of D . medinensis or not .

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