SOUTHWEST FOUNDATION FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
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Genetic Analysis of Host-Parasite Interactions

 <h1>Genetic Analysis of Host-Parasite Interactions</h1> Both host and parasite genetic may potentially influence the outcome of infection in many infectious disease systems. That host genetics plays an important role in human helminth infections has been clearly demonstrated by Sarah Williams-Blangero and colleagues at SFBR. As an extension of this project we will investigate whether Ascaris genetics also plays a role. We have isolated > 80 microsatellite markers from Ascaris for determining the kinship relationships among individual nematodes in this project, and so far 25 of these have been genotyped in as collection of 1200 nematodes collected from the Jirel population in Nepal. These data are also expected to generate an extraordinarily detailed picture of the transmission patterns of parasitic nematodes within a human community, as well as allowing us to analyze interactions between host and parasite genetics.

Photo: Ascaris lumbricoides nematodes collected from a 2-yr-old child following anthemintic treatment.