considerable genetic diversity of trichomonas vaginalis clinical isolates in a targeted population in south of iran

Background: the present study aimed to characterize genetically and to compare the most frequently occurring strains of trichomonas vaginalis isolated from southern iran. methods: totally, 150 vaginal swab and urine specimens were collected from symptomatic and asymptomatic women from may 2012 to jun 2013.this study implemented a sensitive and reliable pcr-restriction fragment length polymorphism (rflp) typing method on the actin gene. moreover, one representative sample of each identified genotype was subjected to sequencing. results: twenty-four t. vaginalis isolates were positive and6 distinct electrophoretic patterns (h, e, g, i, m, n) were identified. genotypes h and i were found to be more prevalent (50 and 37.5%) in kerman and shiraz, respectively. the phylogenetic analysis showed that two isolates were located as a separated clade with the other t. vaginalis isolates. conclusion: the obtained findings showed a considerable genetic polymorphism of clinical isolates from the population studied. more studies may be warranted in future as to unveiling any possible links between a given genotype/cluster and pathogenic behavior of t. vaginalis.