Research note
Necator americanus (Nematoda: Ancylostomatidae) from Africa and Malaysia have different ITS-2 rDNA sequences

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-7519(97)00213-0Get rights and content

Abstract

The nucleotide sequences of the second internal transcribed spacer of rDNA were determined for adult worms of Necator americanus originating from Togo (Africa) and Sarawak (Malaysia). The length of the sequences of specimens from Togo (325 bp) were shorter than those from Sarawak (327 bp). There were six fixed genetic differences in the aligned sequences of N. americanus from Sarawak and Togo, excluding one or two polymorphic sites within the sequence of N. americanus from each geographical region. These findings suggest that there is either population variation in the sequence of N. americanus, or that N. americanus from the two countries may represent genetically distinct but morphologically similar (i.e. cryptic) species, however, comparison of the sequence differences among other hookworm species supports the latter conclusion.

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    Stategies for hookworm control

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    Note: The nucleotide sequence of Necator americanus from Sarawak and a consensus sequence for the Togo isolates have been deposited in the EMBL, GenBank and DDJB databases under the accession numbers AJ001600 and AJ001599, respectively.

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