DETECTION OF TOXOPLASMA GONDII TARGETING THE REPETITIVE MICROSATELLITE SEQUENCE BY PCR

Toxoplasma gondii RH strain tachyzoites were inoculated in mice intraperitoneally (1.5x104 ) and serially propagated. Tachyzoites were cryopreserved using 10-20% glycerol and aliquoted in cryovials in liquid nitrogen. The viability of the preserved tachyzoites were further checked by passage in mice followed by PCR amplification of the highly repetitive sequence of T. gondii. The sequence analysis of the repeated sequence of T. gondii (GenBank Acc. No. KC607824) showed 99.2% homology with Strain SH and Strain PYS (GenBank Acc. no. DQ779192, DQ779189), 98.9% homology with Strain ZS1 (GenBank Acc. no. DQ779196), and 92.5% homology with Strain RH (GenBank Acc. no. DQ779191). The study showed that this repetitive microsatellite sequence could be a good target for detection of toxoplasmosis.