Comparison of draft genomes of multiple Blastocystis subtypes from Colombia

Blastocystis is the most common eukaryotic microorganism colonizing the intestines of both humans and animals. The vast genetic variability and difficulties in establishing and maintaining axenic cultures complicate large-scale genomic investigations aimed at understanding their biological characteristics. To study the genomic characteristics of circulating subtypes (ST) in Colombia, we established 9 xenic cultures from Blastocystis subtypes ST1 (n=3), ST2 (n=1), ST3 (n=1), ST6 (n=1), ST7 (n=1), and ST8 (n=2) isolated from human fecal samples. The sequencing of the nuclear genomes indicated remarkable diversity in terms of size and GC content among the compared STs.