The complete mitochondrial genome of Wellcomia compar (Spirurina: Oxyuridae) and its genome characterization and phylogenetic analysis

Abstract

Abstract Wellcomia compar (Spirurina: Oxyuridae) is a pinworm which parasitizes in the caecum and colon of animals, and it`s host is mainly porcupines. Despite the importance of pinworms as a pathogen, there is still little knowledge about this pinworm. Parasitic diseases are one of the main diseases that affect the growth and health of animals. Clarifying the species of parasites that animals are infected with is an important reference value for the control of parasitic diseases. This study sequenced for the first time the complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of the pinworm Wellcomia compar that had been sampled from Chinese porcupines, then conducted phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated coding sequences (CDS) of 12 protein-coding genes (PCGs) by maximum likelihood (ML) and MrBayes inference (BI), to ascertain the taxonomic and phylogenetic information of W. compar. The complete mt genome (GenBank no. MW059037) is 14,373 bp in size and contains 36 genes, including 12 PCGs, 2 ribosomal RNA, and 22 transfer RNA genes. In addition to the 28 intergenic regions, there was only one non-coding region (NCR) and one overlapping region. The mt genes of Oxyuridomorpha were compared and found to be more similarly characterized in W. compar and Wellcomia siamensis. Furthermore, the phylogenetic tree indicated that W. comparformed a sister group with W. siamensis. This study reports from Chinese porcupine the first complete W. compar mt genome sequence, and provides genetic markers for investigating the taxonomy, population genetics, and phylogenetics of pinworms from different hosts, and has implications for the diagnosis, prevention, and control of parasitic diseases in porcupines and other animals.