Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of ascarid nematodes from twenty-one species of captive wild mammals based on mitochondrial and nuclear sequences
Li Y, Niu L, Wang Q, Zhang Z, Chen Z, Gu X, Xie Y, Yan N, Wang S, Peng X, Yang G.
Abstract
Althoughascaridnematodesare important parasites ofwildanimals of public health concern, fewspeciesof ascarids fromwildanimals have been studied at themolecularlevel so far. Here, the classification andphylogeneticrelationships of roundworms from 21speciesofcaptivewildanimals have been studied by sequencing andanalysisof parts of the ribosomal 18S and 28S genes and themitochondrial(mt) 12S gene.Phylogeneticrelationships were inferred by 3 methods (NJ/MP/ML)basedon the data of single genesequencesand concatenatedsequences. Homologyanalysisindicated that the 18Ssequenceswere conserved among roundworms from all 21speciesand that 28S showed interspecies variability. Divergence levels displayed in 12S suggested that 12S appears to be either intra- or interspecifically variable. Evolutionary trees indicated that the ascarids split into 2 families, 4 genera and 7species, with high bootstrap support for each clade. Combined trees suggested that Baylisascaris ailuri is more closely related toB. transfugathan toB. schroederi. This study provides usefulmolecularmarkers for the classification,phylogeneticanalysisand epidemiological investigation of roundworms fromwildanimals.
Copyright ©Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Parasitology.2012 Sep;139(10):1329-38. doi: 10.1017/S003118201200056X. Epub 2012 May 1.
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