De. Arnot et al., DIGITAL CODES FROM HYPERVARIABLE TANDEMLY REPEATED DNA-SEQUENCES IN THE PLASMODIUM-FALCIPARUM CIRCUMSPOROZOITE GENE CAN GENETICALLY BARCODEISOLATES, Molecular and biochemical parasitology, 61(1), 1993, pp. 15-24
DNA typing systems currently used in parasitology involve either hybri
dising Southern blots with repetitive sequence probes or amplifying ge
nomic sequences using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Both such a
pproaches assay allelic length variation, usually in unexpressed tande
mly repeated DNA sequences. Where an appropriate target locus exists,
an alternative PCR-based strategy which reveals allelic sequence varia
tion in tandemly repeated DNA offers a more accurate and internally co
ntrolled assay. We describe such a strategy for the rapid extraction o
f information on tandem repeat sequence variation from hypervariable a
lleles, and apply it to the Plasmodium falciparum CS gene. The extreme
variability of such DNA 'barcodes' can be used to identify parasite s
tocks and lineages. This system is also potentially useful for populat
ion genetic and epidemiological studies since it offers the possibilit
y of following the spread of distinctively marked parasite genotypes i
n samples taken from infected individuals.