Genetic Diversity of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei from Dogs in Hunan province, China Based on Analyses of Two Mitochondrial Sequences

Abstract

Sequence variability in two mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) regions, namely NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (nad5) and small subunit of ribosomal RNA (rrnS) in Spirometra erinaceieuropaei from dogs in Hunan province in China was examined. A portion of the nad5 (pnad5) and rrnS (prrnS) genes were amplified separately from individual S. erinaceieuropaei by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Representative amplicons were subjected to sequencing in order to estimate sequence variability. The sequences of pnad5 and prrnS were 531 and 328 bp in size, respectively. The intra-specific sequence variations within each of the S. erinaceieuropaei were 0-3.5% for pnad5 and 0-1.4% for prrnS, while the inter-specific sequence variations within each of the S. erinaceieuropaei were 12.2-35.7% for pnad5 and 10.4-11.8% for prrnS. Phylogenetic analysis using neighbour joining (NJ), maximum likelihood (ML), and maximum
parsimony (MP) methods, indicated that all the isolates in Hunan province represented S. erinaceieuropaei. These findings demonstrated clearly the usefulness of the three mtDNA sequences for population genetics studies of S. einaceieuropaei in human and animal health significance.