Strain-specific variations in Toxoplasma gondii GRA1, GRA5, GRA6, GRA8, and GRA14

Diagnosis and identification of the genetic group of T. gondii (Toxoplasma gondii) are important to control better the T. gondii infection, particularly in immunocompromised people as HIV patients. This study aimed to identify strain-specific variations in T. gondii GRA1, GRA5, GRA6, GRA8, and GRA14 in order to help design such diagnostic tool to detect and characterize the parasite. Forty-three T. gondii GRA1, GRA5, GRA6, GRA8, and GRA14 sequences deposited in GenBank were aligned. A number of positions in the gene sequences were highly conserved. All GRA sequences had strain-specific positions, however, only GRA1, GRA5, and GRA6, which contained specific variations for each T. gondii lineage. In conclusion, T. gondii GRA1, GRA5, GRA6, GRA8, and GRA14 are predicted to contain highly conserved regions and positions with strain-specific variation, which might be useful for the design of diagnostic tools detecting and distinguishing T. gondiistrains.