ABSTRACT
Unfortunately, the original version of this article [1], contained a mistake. In Table 1, the primers for Sh6 and Sh9 were included incorrectly. Instead of GGGATGTATGCAGACTTG TTGTTTGGCTGCAGTAAC and GCTGAGCTTGAGATTG CTTCTGTCCCATCGATACC they should have been Sh6 Forward Primer GGTGGATTACGCAATAG, Sh6 Reverse Primer TTTAATCAACCGGGTGTC and Sh9 Forward Primer GGGATGTATGCAGACTTG, Sh9 Reverse Primer TTGTTTGGCTGCAGTAAC respectively. A corrected version of Table 1 is included below
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Human urogenital schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma haematobium is widely distributed across Africa and is increasingly targeted for control and regional elimination. The development of new high-throughput, cost-effective molecular tools and approaches are needed to monitor and evaluate the impact of control programs on the parasite populations. Microsatellite loci are genetic markers that can be used to investigate how parasite populations change over time and in relation to external influences such as control interventions. FINDINGS: Here, 18 existing S. haematobium microsatellite loci were optimised to enable simultaneous amplification across two novel multiplex microsatellite PCR's, each containing nine loci. Methods were developed for the cost effective and rapid processing and microsatellite analysis of S. haematobium larval stages stored on Whatman-FTA cards and proved robust on miracidia and cercariae collected from Zanzibar and Niger. CONCLUSION: The development of these novel and robust multiplex microsatellite assays, in combination with an improved protocol to elute gDNA from Whatman-FTA fixed schistosome larval stages, enables the high-throughput population genetic analysis of S. haematobium. The molecular resources and protocols described here advance the way researchers can perform multi locus-based population genetic analyses of S. haematobium as part of the evaluation and monitoring of schistosomiasis control programmes.
