ArticleNature communications2024
VESPA: an optimized protocol for accurate metabarcoding-based characterization of vertebrate eukaryotic endosymbiont and parasite assemblages.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gut protist diversity in Eurasian beavers (International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2026Article
- Review
- High-throughput detection of microeukaryotic parasites in insects using Nanopore sequencing.Microbial genomics · 2026Article
- Gut microbiota and parasite dynamics in an Amazonian community undergoing urbanization in Colombia.mSphere · 2026Article
- Parasite spillover rather than niche expansion explains infection of host brain by diplostomid eye flukes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- CRISPR-Cas9-mediated host signal reduction for 18S metabarcoding of host-associated eukaryotes.Molecular ecology resources · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Protocols for characterizing taxonomic assemblages by deep sequencing of short DNA barcode regions (metabarcoding) have revolutionized our understanding of microbial communities and are standardized for bacteria, archaea, and fungi. Unfortunately, comparable methods for host-associated eukaryotes have lagged due to technical challenges. Despite 54 published studies, issues remain with primer complementarity, off-target amplification, and lack of external validation. Here, we present VESPA (Vertebrate Eukaryotic endoSymbiont and Parasite Analysis) primers and optimized metabarcoding protocol for host-associated eukaryotic community analysis. Using in silico prediction, panel PCR, engineered mock community standards, and clinical samples, we demonstrate VESPA to be more effective at resolving host-associated eukaryotic assemblages than previously published methods and to minimize off-target amplification. When applied to human and non-human primate samples, VESPA enables reconstruction of host-associated eukaryotic endosymbiont communities more accurately and at finer taxonomic resolution than microscopy. VESPA has the potential to advance basic and translational science on vertebrate eukaryotic endosymbiont communities, similar to achievements made for bacterial, archaeal, and fungal microbiomes.
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Registered trials
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