INTERSPECIES DIFFERENTIATION OF BENIGN THEILERIAS BY GENOMIC FINGERPRINTING WITH ARBITRARY PRIMERS

A method was developed to obtain reproducible DNA fingerprints from fi ve distinct purified benign Theileria genomic DNAs by PCR-based amplif ication. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles were obtai ned from 10 randomly designed 12-mers. However, nine of the 10 primers could generate the difference in RAPD-PCR profiles which allowed disc rimination of Theileria species. The method has advantage of being sim ple, fast and sensitive for diagnosis and characterization of the para sites since it does not require prior DNA sequence information to cons truct species-specific probes or primers. The results are also benefic ial for a proper understanding of the epidemiology and designing ratio nal control programmes for Theileriosis in Asian and South-East Asian countries. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.