Molecular identification of animal isolates ofEchinococcus granulosusfrom Iran using four mitochondrial genes

Abstract

AbstractMitochondrial genes have more power than nuclear genes in reconstructing phylogenetic relationships among closely related species because of their faster sequence evolution. The aim of this study was to use the complete or near-complete sequences from three mitochondrial genes (cox1,nad1andatp6) and partial sequences of the 12S rRNA gene to infer relationships among isolates ofEchinococcus granulosusfrom Iran. Two hundred and twenty-nine isolates ofE. granulosuswere collected from cattle, camels, sheep, buffalo and goats from different geographical areas. Most individuals were found to possess the G1 genotype but some of the camel samples belonged to the G6 genotype. Newly designed primers forcox1,nad1andatp6genes amplified bands of 1830, 708 and 1157 bp for the G1 genotype and 1856, 705, 1054 bp for the G6 genotype, respectively. The result of this survey showed thatatp6andnad1genes are good molecular markers for identifyingE. granulosusisolates from a range of hosts in Iran.