Diagnostic PCR assay of female-specific markers in males and females <i>Schistosoma haematobium</i> (<i>S</i>. <i>h</i>), <i>Schistosoma bovis</i> (<i>S</i>. <i>b</i>) and their hybrids.

<p>The first three gels correspond to PCR amplifications on adult worms (biological duplicates for males and females) of the 5 female specific markers identified with our <i>in silico</i> approach. Note that upper-bands correspond to the <i>GAPDH</i> gene control (558 bp), whereas lower bands correspond to female-specific amplification (see <a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005138#pntd.0005138.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a> for amplicon sizes). Note also that amplification is not effective for amplification from the genome of <i>S</i>. <i>bovis</i> using the two markers WSh1 and Wsh2. The last two gels show sex-specific amplification for the three markers, efficient in both species on a batch of cercariae from molluscs mono-miracidially infected with <i>S</i>. <i>haematobium</i>.