The enzyme profiles of 109 Bolivian stocks of Trypanosoma cruzi were determined by cellulose acetate electrophoresis using the four enzymes: malate dehydrogenase (oxaloacetate decarboxylating) (NADP+) (E.C.1.1.1.40, ME), phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (E.C.1.1.1.44, 6PGDH), phosphoglucomutase (E.C.2.7.5.1, PGM) and glucosephosphate isomerase (E.C.5.3.1.9, GPI). As previously, two principal zymo...

Chagas’ disease, the most widespread parasitic ailment in Latin America, produces clinical pictures with regional variations (1). In Chile, due to the country’s geographic and ecologic isolation, specific local conditions influencing Chagas’ disease vectors differ from those prevailing in other countries. One such vector, Triatoma spinohi, has not been found in other geographic areas. Among oth...

In this preliminary report, we describe a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis technique for the resolution of isoenzyme patterns of four isolates of Entamoeba histolytica and one isolate of Entamoeba coli. Our findings were similar to previous findings for three enzyme systems: maleic enzyme (malate dehydrogenase [EC 1.1.1.40]), hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1), and phosphoglucomutase (EC 2.7.5.1). We fo...

In the Mediterranean region Leishmania infantum causes both visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis. These two pathologies tend to be caused by distinct parasite zymodemes. We have studied 33 isolates of Leishmania, 2 from sandflies, 5 from visceral cases, and 26 from cutaneous cases in Honduras, to determine if there is a correlation between pathology and parasite type in the New World similar to...

Although Colombia presents an enormous biological diversity, few studies have been conducted on the population genetics of Trypanosoma cruzi. This study was carried out with 23 Colombian stocks of this protozoa analyzed for 13 isoenzymatic loci. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the genetic diversity and heterogeneity, the genetic relationships and the possible spatial structure of these 23 Colom...

Strains of Entamoeba histolytica which were isolated from symptomatic patients and which possess a characteristic pathogenic isoenzyme pattern (zymodeme) have extrachromosomal circular DNA molecules containing RNA genes and clusters of tandemly reiterated PvuI elements. The nucleotide sequence of comparable reiterated BamHI elements present in amebae with nonpathogenic zymodemes differs from th...

On the basis of partial amplification of a cloned fragment of kDNA of Leishmania infantum which is specific for this species, we developed a PCR-ELISA technique which avoids the problems associated with classical diagnostic techniques. This technique was tested on 33 L. infantum strains from 19 different zymodemes, which were recognized equally. It was also used on human and canine clinical sam...