Determination of a Gene Expressed only in the Infective Larval Stage of Dirofilaria immitis
Loading...
Authors
Thompson, Simone Jamika
Issue Date
2016-05
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Thesis, Academic , Biology
Alternative Title
Abstract
Thompson, Simone J. Determination of a Gene Expressed only in the Infective Larval Stage of Dirofilaria immitis. Thesis. (Biology Department: Valdosta State University, 2016).
Current molecular assays for detecting Dirofilaria immitis DNA in mosquitoes by PCR cannot differentiate between infected mosquitoes that contain any stage of the parasite and infective mosquitoes that harbor third-stage parasite larvae (L3). This over-estimates transmission risks to canines because only L3 D. immitis are capable of establishing infections in canines. I have developed an assay that detects D. immitis L3 in the vector Aedes aegypti based on a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method that detects an L3-activated gene transcript. Potential L3 stage genes were identified using bioinformatics tools and were screened by PCR using complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries as templates. Candidate genes were screened for stage-specific expression using RNA isolated from both D. immitis
UUID: 0D49F070-F616-4C29-85F8-FEC62FD3AC9B