A novel method to assess the biodiversity of parasites using 18S rDNA Illumina sequencing; parasitome analysis method.

Understanding parasite diversity has important implications in several research fields, including ecology, evolutionary biology, and epidemiology. Here, we introduce a novel method to assess the biodiversity of parasites-especially those in the host alimentary tract-using an 18S rDNA-based metagenomic approach. The method is easy and quick compared to conventional methods, and does not require dissections of host bodies or identification skills for various parasite species. The use of a "next generation sequencer" in this method allows us to perform the assessment in a high throughput manner, which will increase our knowledge of parasite diversity.