Ecological parasitology in the molecular genetics era

Abstract

Pérez-Tris, J. (2009) Ecological parasitology in the molecular genetics era. Ecosistemas 18(1):52-59.

The use of molecular techniques for diagnosing and identifying parasites has recently been incorporated into research on the ecology of host-parasite interactions. Molecular techniques based on the amplification by means of PCR of a fragment of parasite DNA have greatly helped to increase the rate of detection of parasite infections. In addition, these techniques have opened a new research field about the diversity of these parasites –which is often cryptic to the eye–, the patterns of evolutionary divergence of parasite lineages, or the ecological singularities exhibited by different parasites. These kinds of approaches have boosted up research on ecological parasitology, as shown by the exponetial growth of the field during the last decade.