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Population identification of Sarcoptes hominis and Sarcoptes canis in China using DNA sequences

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Abstract

There has been no consistent conclusion on whether Sarcoptes mites parasitizing in humans and animals are the same species. To identify Sarcoptes (S.) hominis and S. canis in China, gDNA was extracted from individual mites (five from patients with scabies and five from dogs with mange) for amplification of rDNA ITS2, mtDNA 16S, and cox1 fragment sequences. Then, the sequences obtained were aligned with those from different hosts and geographical locations retrieved from GenBank and sequence analyses were conducted. Phylogenetic trees based on 317-bp mtDNA cox1 showed five distinctive branches (species) of Sarcoptes mites, four for S. hominis (S. hominis Chinese, S. nr. hominis Chinese, S. hominis Australian, and S. hominis Panamanian) and one for S. animal (S. animal). S. animal included mites from nine animal species, with S. canis China, S. canis Australia, and S. canis USA clustering as a subbranch. Further sequence divergence analysis revealed no overlap between intraspecific (≤2.6 %) and interspecific (2.6–10.5 %) divergences in 317-bp mtDNA cox1. However, overlap was detected between intra- and interspecific divergences in 311-bp rDNA ITS2 or 275-bp mtDNA 16S when the divergences exceeded 1.0 %, which resulted in failure in identification of Sarcoptes. The results showed that the 317-bp mtDNA cox1 could be used as a DNA barcode for molecular identification of Sarcoptes mites. In addition, geographical isolation was observed between S. hominis Chinese, S. hominis Australian, and S. hominis Panamanian, but not between all S. canis. S. canis and the other S. animal belonged to the same species.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81271856; No. 81471972).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology and Pathogen Biology, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, No.76 Yanta West Road, Xi’an, China, 710061

    YaE Zhao, ZhiGuo Cao, Juan Cheng, Li Hu, JunXian Ma & YuanJun Yang

  2. Anhui Provincial Institute of Schistosomiasis Control, Hefei, China

    ZhiGuo Cao & TianPing Wang

  3. Department of Dermatology and Venereology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    XiaoPeng Wang

  4. Xi’an PET Animal Hospital, Xi’an, China

    JiHui Zeng

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  1. YaE Zhao
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  2. ZhiGuo Cao
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  3. Juan Cheng
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  4. Li Hu
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Correspondence to YaE Zhao.

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Online Resource 2

Traditional rectangular NJ phylogenetic trees of Sarcoptes mites. a rDNA ITS2, b mtDNA 16S, and c mtDNA cox1 (GIF 94 kb)

High resolution (TIFF 67618 kb)

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Zhao, Y., Cao, Z., Cheng, J. et al. Population identification of Sarcoptes hominis and Sarcoptes canis in China using DNA sequences. Parasitol Res 114, 1001–1010 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-4266-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-4266-1

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