STUDY OF THE INTERSPECIFIC AND INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION OF EIMERIA SPPFROM THE RABBIT USING RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA

A genetic polymorphism study was performed in coccidia from the rabbit . A comparative analysis of the RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA )-generated fingerprints, using II arbitrary primers, was carried out (1) in nine Eimeria species (E. intestinalis, E, magna, E. piriformis, E. flavescens, E, vejdovskyi, E. coecicola, E, perforans, E. exigua, and E. media) and (2) in two strains of E. intestinalis and four strai ns of E. media originating from different geographic areas. For each o f these four strains of E. media, three lines deriving from the multip lication of a single oocyst were compared. All the primers tested yiel ded about ten amplified fragments. The profiles obtained differed cons iderably according to the species; thus, it was not possible to establ ish a phylogeny. On the other hand, species-specific fingerprints were observed, showing that RAPD assays might be useful for diagnosis. In E. media, analysis of the RAPD products showed weak differences betwee n each of the four strains but nevertheless allowed differentiation of the lines deriving from the multiplication of one oocyst. Similar res ults were obtained with three methods of analysis: correspondence anal ysis, the hierarchical unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic av erages (UP-GMA), and parsimony analysis. RAPD proved to be a useful te chnique for these intraspecific studies.