Dissecting the phyloepidemiology of Trypanosoma cruzi I (TcI) in Brazil by the use of high resolution genetic markers

Abstract

The present work considers a large TcI sample from different hosts and vectors spanning multiple ecologically diverse biomes in Brazil. Importantly, we combine fast and slow evolving markers to contribute to the epizootiological understanding of TcI in five distinct Brazilian biomes. This constitutes the first instance in which MLST analysis was combined with the use of MLMT and maxicircle markers to evaluate the genetic diversity of TcI isolates in Brazil. Our results demonstrate the existence of substantial genetic diversity and the occurrence of introgression events. We provide evidence of genetic exchange in TcI isolates from Brazil and of the relative isolation of TcI in the Amazon biome. We observe the absence of strict associations with TcI genotypes to geographic areas and/or host species.