An atypical strain associated with congenital toxoplasmosis in Tunisia.

Sonia Boughattas (1) , Rym Ben Abdallah (1) , Emna Siala (1) , Karim Aoun (1) , Aida Bouratbine (1)

1 Laboratoire d'Epidémiologie et d'Ecologie parasitaire, Institut Pasteur de Tunis

We report the identification and typing of a congenital toxoplasmosis case in a diabetic pregnant young woman living in Tunis. The Toxoplasma DNA extracted from amniotic fluid was detected by Real Time PCR and subjected to a multilocus genetic characterisation of the strain at markers: 3'SAG2, 5'SAG2, New SAG2, SAG3, GRA6, BTUB, APICO, PK1, KT850 and UPRT1. An atypical genotype of T.gondii with unusual genetic composition was revealed. It is the first time that an atypical strain has been associated with congenital toxoplasmosis in Africa. Atypical strains are associated with severe clinical manifestations so systematic genotyping should be investigated with the amniocentesis.

Keywords: Congenital toxoplasmosis; Multilocus genotyping; Atypical strain

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Sonia Boughattas, Rym Ben Abdallah, Emna Siala, Karim Aoun, Aida Bouratbine. An atypical strain associated with congenital toxoplasmosis in Tunisia.. Microbiologica -Bologna-, 2011, 34 (4), pp.413-416. ⟨pasteur-00658237⟩