Analysis of Theileria orientalis draft genome sequences reveals potential species-level divergence of the Ikeda, Chitose and Buffeli genotypes.

We used whole genome sequencing to demonstrate that the T. orientalis Ikeda, Chitose and Buffeli variants show substantial genetic divergence. Our data indicates that future researchers could potentially consider disease-associated Ikeda and closely related genotypes as a separate species from non-pathogenic Chitose and Buffeli.