Expression profile and polymorphisms of actin genes in protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus from sheep in central Turkey

The expression levels and polymorphisms of two actin genes, EgactI and EgactII, were investigated in the protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus isolated from sheep in the central region of Turkey. Only the EgactII gene was found to be expressed at detectable levels by protoscoleces in the present study. PCR-RFLP analysis and following sequence analysis revealed that a partial EgactI gene is more polymorphic than a partial EgactII gene. And, three alleles for EgactI gene were identified. In all samples, including three alleles, there were nucleotide substitutions at six positions of the partial EgactI gene, and were distinct from the reference sequence from GenBankTM database. These differences are referred to as the Anatolian haplotype.