Prevalent Genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii in Pregnant Women and Patients from Crete and Cyprus

Abstract. Molecular genotyping has been used to characterize Toxoplasma gondii strains into the three clonal lineages known as types I, II, and III. To characterize T. gondii strains from Greece and Cyprus, polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis on the GRA6 gene was performed directly on 20 clinical samples from 18 humans (11 pregnant women, six patients with lymphadenopathy, and one patient positive for human immunodeficiency virus) and two rats. Characterization of T. gondii types was performed after digestion of amplified products with Mse I. The 20 strains were characterized as type II (20%) and type III (80%). Of these strains, 19 originated from the island of Crete (4 strains type II and 15 strains type III), and 1 from the island of Cyprus (type III). Although both type II and type III strains were found, type III was the most prevalent in Crete