Erttmann K D, Unnasch T R, Greene B M, Albiez E J, Boateng J, Denke A M, Ferraroni J J, Karam M, Schulz-Key H, Williams P N
Nature. 1987;327(6121):415-7. doi: 10.1038/327415a0.
Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, is caused by infection with Onchocerca volvulus, a filarial parasite which infects about 40 million people in Africa and Latin America. Epidemiological, clinical, entomological and serological studies of African onchocerciasis led to the hypothesis that Onchocerca volvulus exists in different forms in the forest and savannah. It is uncertain if these differences are due to genetic differences within O. volvulus itself, or to epigenetic factors, such as differences in the host populations. To date no basic biochemical differences between the forest and savannah populations of O. volvulus has been found, although isoenzyme studies have shown that differences in allele frequency between forest and savannah populations exist. Here we describe the isolation of a DNA sequence that seems to be specific for the forest form of O. volvulus, the first indication of a basic genetic difference between the savannah and forest forms.
盘尾丝虫病，又称河盲症，是由感染旋盘尾丝虫引起的，这种丝虫寄生虫感染了非洲和拉丁美洲约4000万人。对非洲盘尾丝虫病的流行病学、临床、昆虫学和血清学研究得出了一个假说，即旋盘尾丝虫在森林和稀树草原中存在不同形态。目前尚不确定这些差异是由于旋盘尾丝虫自身的基因差异，还是由于表观遗传因素，如宿主种群的差异。迄今为止，虽然同工酶研究表明森林和稀树草原种群之间存在等位基因频率差异，但尚未发现旋盘尾丝虫森林和稀树草原种群之间存在基本的生化差异。在此，我们描述了一个似乎对旋盘尾丝虫森林形态具有特异性的DNA序列的分离，这是稀树草原和森林形态之间存在基本遗传差异的首个迹象。
