Arezoo Bozorgomid1, Naser Nazari2, Eshrat Beigom Kia1, Homa Hajjaran1, Mehdi Mohebali1,3, Mojgan Aryaeipour1, Peyman Heidarian1, Mohammad Saeid Ezati4, Mohamad Bagher Rokni1,3. 1. Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2. Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. 3. Center for Research of Endemic Parasites of Iran (CREPI), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 4. Dept. of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
We would like to thank Dr Lee for his interest in our paper and for taking time to express their concerns. We agree that chimeric sequences in eukaryotes like other prokaryotic organisms could result in false perceptions novel haplotype or species. Chimeras are artifact sequences formed by two or more biological sequences concatenated into a single one (1). The ability to detect chimeric sequences during PCR amplification of the 18S ribosomal RNA genes is critical to avoid from polluting the public databases (2).Coding regions of rDNA in the phylogenetic studies of various organisms have been well studied in past decades (3, 4). The primary objective of our study was to identify of Fasciola species in Kermanshah Province, western Iran by PCR-RFLP of 18S, ITS1 and 5.8S rRNA genes. It should be noted, however, sequencing rRNA-ITS1 region was used to confirm the results of PCR-RFLP (5). While efforts to detect chimeric sequences in 16S rRNA have been made in the prokaryotic community, parallel efforts in the eukaryotic community have been underdeveloped (1). However, there are no comprehensive databases for better understanding of chimeras in eukaryotic organisms especially Fasciola parasites.