Molecular characterization of Trichuris ovis from goats in hunan province of China

Abstract

Trichuris ovis (Nematoda: Trichuridae) is a widespread nematode that can infect a broad range of animal hosts,
such as goats, sheep and oryx. This parasite is of vital importance as a pathogen, but its population genetics, molecular
epidemiology and biology are still not well understood. In this study, T. ovis isolates were collected from goats in Hunan
province, China, and sequences variation in cox1 gene were examined. A portion of cox1 gene from each collected adult
T. ovis individual was separately amplified using the PCR method, and the amplicons were sequenced from both
directions. The sequences of pcox1 gene were 382 bp long with A+T contents of between 59.7% and 60.2%. Although
there were 0-1% differences in internal specific sequences, the interspecific variations were from 23.3% to 27.2%.
Phylogenetic analysis based on Bayesian inference (BI) method using the pcox1 gene sequences confirmed that all
isolates of Trichuris from the present study were Trichuris ovis. Phylogenetic tree revealed that within the comparation
of members of Trichuris, T. ovis and T. discolor were more closely related than to others. Our results have improved the
molecular epidemiology and population genetics comprehension of T. ovis species.