Clone CL Brener is the reference organism used in the Trypanosoma cruzi
Genome Project. Some biological parameters of CL Brener were determined:
(a) the doubling time of epimastigote forms cultured in liver
infusion-tryptose (LIT) medium at 28 C is 58+/-13 hr; (b) differentiation
of epimastigotes to metacyclic trypomastigotes is obtained by incubation in
LIT-20% Grace's medium; (c) trypomastigotes infect mammalian cultured cells
and perform the complete intracellular cycle at 33 and 37 C; (d) blood
forms are highly infective to mice; (e) blood forms are susceptible to
nifurtimox and benznidazole. The molecular typing of CL Brener has been
determined: (a) isoenzymatic profiles are characteristic of zymodeme ZB;
(b) PCR amplification of a 24Sa ribosomal RNA sequence indicates it belongs
to T. cruzi lineage 1; (c) schizodeme, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA
(RAPD) and DNA fingerprinting analyses were performed.
