Genetic recombination of precociousness and anticoccidial drug resistance inEimeria tenella

Summary

Two strains ofEimeria tenella differing in decoquinate-resistance and developmental rate were crossed. Strain Wis-F was decoquinate-sensitive (DS) and precocious (P+), while strain 368 was decoquinate-resistant (DR) and had a normal developmental rate (P-). Cultures of the parent strains and a culture derived from a mixture of parent strain oocysts were propagated through drug and developmental barries to select parasites with the respective parantal phenotypes (DS/P+ and DR/P-) and the recombinant phenotype (DR/P+). The ability of a portion of the population in the strain-cross culture to reproduce in the presence of the simultaneously imposed drug and development barrier showed that they were the recombinant phenotype (DR/P+), which has been produced through fertilization by gameters of opposite parent strains ofE. tenella.