BACKGROUND We aimed to describe morphological and morphometrical characteristics of Fasciola spp. in livestock from Ardabil Province, Northwest Iran. METHODS Forty adult flukes were collected from different definitive hosts (cattle and sheep). Previously specimens were identified as F. hepatica or F. gigantica based on PCR-RFLP of the ITS-1 region with RsaI enzyme. We identified Fasciola spp....

BACKGROUND Dermatophytes are the most common causative agents of superficial mycoses. Species identification of these fungi is important from therapeutic and epidemiological point of wive. Traditional approaches for identification of dermatophytes at the species level, relying on macroscopic and microscopic features of the colonies, usually are time-consuming and unreliable in many circumstance...

Candida dubliniensis is a novel Candida spp. that is similar to Candida albicans with respect to several phenotypic characteristics. However, they differ from each other with respect to epidemiology, pathogenesis, and the rapid development of resistance to fluconazole. In the present study, we used a single-enzyme PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique to differentiate C....

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES In Iran, anaplasmosis is normally diagnosed with traditional Giemsa staining method. This is not applicable for identification of the carrier animals. The aim of this study was to compare the detection of Anaplasma marginale in two different numbers of microscopic fields (50 and 100) using conventional Giemsa staining method compared with the PCR-RFLP technique. MATE...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Genetic diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is complicated by the presence of SMN2 gene as majority of SMA patients show absence or deletion of SMN1 gene. PCR may amplify both the genes non selectively in presence of high amount of DNA. We evaluated whether allele-specific PCR for diagnostic screening of SMA is reliable in the presence of high amount of genomic DN...

BACKGROUND We aimed to develop a PCR-RFLP assay based on available sequences of putative vertebrate hosts to identify blood meals ingested by field female sand fly in the northwest of Iran. In addition, the utility of PCR-RFLP was compared with ELISA as a standard method. METHODS This experimental study was performed in the Insect Molecular Biology Laboratory of School of Public Health, Tehra...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Glycoprotein B (gB), involved in cell-to-cell transmission of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), is a critical factor in tissue tropism and viral pathogenesis. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficiency of PCR-based RFLP and multiplex nested PCR for gB gene of HCMV to determine their genotype in clinical specimens from patients with HCMV. METHODS The PCR base...

PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and PCR-single-strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analyses were carried out on the 1.6-kb groEL gene from 41 strains of 10 different Salmonella serovars. Three HaeIII RFLP profiles were recognized, but no discrimination between the serovars could be achieved by this technique. However, PCR-SSCP analysis of the groEL genes of vario...