Genotyping determination of Acanthamoeba strains: an original study and a systematic review in Iran Hadi Mirahmadi, Maryam Mansouri Nia, Adel Ebrahimzadeh, Ahmad Mehravaran, Reza Shafiei, Mohammad Taghi Rahimi, Reza Zolfaghari Emameh and Harlan R. Barker ABSTRACT This study aimed to detect the presence of Acanthamoeba spp. in different water resources of Zahedan, southeast of Iran, and also systematically reviewed all publications regarding Acanthamoeba in Iran (2005–2018). Fifty water samples were collected from different water resources in Zahedan. The positive samples were identified morphologically and subjected to PCR using fragments of 18S rRNA. In the systematic review, data collection using particular terms was carried out using the following electronic databases including Science Direct, ISI Web of Science, MEDLINE, EBSCO, Scopus, and Google Scholar. A total of 17 (34%) samples were positive for Acanthamoeba spp., and nucleotide sequencing indicated that 15 samples (88.23%) belonged to the T4 genotype and the rest belonged to the T5 genotype. A total of 39 studies reported genotyping of Acanthamoeba spp. from various geographical areas of Iran and revealed that T4 (35 studies), T5 (19 studies), T3 (11 studies), T11 (8 studies), and T2 (6 studies) genotypes were the most prevalent in Iran. The T4 genotype of Acanthamoeba is a prevalent free-living amoeba and widely distributed not only in Zahedan but also in other provinces of Iran. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that A. castellanii and A. griffini predominantly colocalize with the T4 genotype. Hadi Mirahmadi Maryam Mansouri Nia Adel Ebrahimzadeh Ahmad Mehravaran Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Tuberculosis Resistance Institute, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran and Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran Reza Shafiei (corresponding author) Vector-borne Diseases Research Center, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran E-mail: reza_shafi@yahoo.com; r.shafiei@nkums.ac.ir Mohammad Taghi Rahimi School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran Reza Zolfaghari Emameh Department of Energy and Environmental Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), 14965/161 Tehran, Iran Harlan R. Barker Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland Key words | Acanthamoeba, amoeba, epidemiology, genotyping PCR, Iran, parasite INTRODUCTION Acanthamoeba is a cosmopolitan free-living amoeba (FLA) and an opportunistic protozoan parasite which can be found in a variety of environments, including saltwater and freshwater, soil, and decaying plants as well as the skin, cornea, lung, and brain of infected humans (Tsvetkova et al. ; Khan ; Rezaeian et al. ; Bagheri et al. ; Magnet et al. ). Two forms of the parasite, repre- senting distinct stages of its life cycle, have been identified: a vegetative trophozoite and a cyst with a double-layer coat, which is resistant to disinfectants and dryness and can survive for many years in the environment (Schuster & Visvesvara ). Contaminated environments are 1 © IWA Publishing 2019 Journal of Water and Health | in press | 2019 doi: 10.2166/wh.2019.048 Corrected Proof Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/jwh/article-pdf/doi/10.2166/wh.2019.048/587974/wh2019048.pdf by guest on 07 October 2019