Morphological and molecular identification of a free-living Acanthamoeba spp. Isolated from the environmental sources in the central province / Iraq

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Zahraa Fadhil Abass, Ghaidaa Abass Jasim

Abstract

     Acanthamoebaas a free-living protozoan which is one of the most commonly isolated amoebae in environmental samples.It is ubiquitous and found in a variety of habitats including domestic water supplies , hospital water , dental water units , air and soil . The current study under taken investigation and detection of Acanthamoeba spp. throughout morphological and molecular methods in different environmental samples at province central Iraq. This study included fifty eight sample were collected from different environmental source during the period from August  to September 2022.. The samples were cultured on NN-agar medium after that PCR was conducted on the culture positive samples .Over all 25/58 (43.301%) samples were positive on morphological characters , PCR –analysis showed that only 20/25(80%) of Acanthamoeba morphologically positive samples were positive by specific primer .


 The Acanthamoeba spp. It was isolated from soil, potato soil and water and confirmed by molecular examination. In this study, four species of Acanthamoeba can be identified morphologically, namely, A. triangleis, A. astronyxis, A. castellini, and A. polyphaga. study considering the possible presence of Acanthamoeba species in different samples, whether in the environmental source, which will be opened for further epidemiological studies in order to better understand the role of Acanthamoeba as a potential threat to the spread of pollution in different environments in Iraq.


 


 

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Zahraa Fadhil Abass, Ghaidaa Abass Jasim