Population structure and genetic diversity of Trichomonas vaginalis clinical isolates in Australia and Ghana

Abstract

Population genetic studies of Trichomonas vaginalis have detected high genetic diversity associated with phenotypic differences in clinical presentations. In this study, microscopy and next generation-multi-locus sequence typing (NG-MLST) were used to identify and genetically characterise T. vaginalis isolates from patients in Australia and Ghana. Seventy-one polymorphic nucleotide sites, 36 different alleles, 48 sequence types, 24 of which were novel, were identified among 178 isolates, revealing a geneticallly diverse T. vaginalis population. Polymorphism was found at most loci, clustering genotypes into eight groups among both Australian and Ghanaian isolates, although there was some variation between countries. The number of alleles for each locus ranged from two to nine. Study results confirmed geographic expansion and diversity of the T. vaginalis population. Two-type populations in almost equal frequencies and a third unassigned group were identified in this study. Linkage disequilibrium was observed, suggesting T. vaginalis population is highly clonal. Multillocus disequilibrium was observed even when analysing clades separately, as well as widespread clonal genotypes, suggesting that there is no evidence of recent recombination. A more comprehensive study to assess the extent of genetic diversity and population structure of T. vaginalis and their potential impact on varied pathology observed among infected individuals is recommended.