Genetic and morphometric categorization ofTaenia ovisfrom Sheep in Iran

Abstract

AbstractLittle is known about the genetic and morphological characters ofTaenia ovis. The purpose of the present study was to characterize sheep isolates ofT. ovisusing rostellar hook morphometry as well as mitochondrial genes sequence analysis. Ninety sheep specimens ofCysticercus oviswere collected from 18 slaughterhouses in Iran. The mean ±s.d.for total length of large and small hooks were 174.1 ± 6.4 and 116.7 ± 5.4µm, respectively. CO1 and 12S rRNA sequence analysis showed 11 and nine haplotypes, respectively. The level of pairwise nucleotide variations between individual haplotypes of CO1 and 12S rRNA genes were 0.3–1.1 and 0.2–1.0%, respectively. Level of nucleotide variation in CO1 and 12S rRNA betweenT. ovishaplotypes from present study and eight otherTaeniaspecies was found to be 11.3–17.8 and 5.3–16.3%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis clustered allT. ovisisolates into a single clade comprised of the all CO1 and 12S rRNA haplotypes. CO1 nucleotide difference betweenT. ovis ovisandT. asiaticawas 13.6% that is lesser than the corresponding difference betweenT. ovis ovisandT. ovis krabbei, warranting the designation of two separate species asT. ovisandT. krabbei. Interclass correlation coefficients showed that there was no significant association between rostellar hook length variation and the variability of the mitochondrial genes.