Spermatogenic and phylo-molecular characterizations of isolated Fasciola spp. From cattle, north west Iran

Abstract

Background and Objective: Fascioliasis is economically important to the livestock industry that caused with Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica. The objective of this study was to identify these two species F. hepatica and F. gigantica by using nuclear and mitochondrial markers (ITS1, ND1 and CO1) and have been employed to analyze intraspecific phylogenetic relations of Fasciola spp. Materials and Methods: Approximately 150 Fasciola specimens were collected, then stained with haematoxylin-carmine dye and observed under an optical microscope to examine for the existence of sperm. The ITS1 marker was used to identify different Fasciola and phylogenetic analysis based on ND1 and CO1 sequence data were conducted by maximum likelihood algorithm. Results: Fasciola samples were separated into 2 groups. Almost all specimens had many sperms in the seminal vesicle (spermic fluke) and one fluke did not contain any sperm in the seminal vesicle. The aspermic sample had F. gigantica RFLP pattern with ITS1 gene. Phylogenetic analysis based on NDI and COI sequence data were conducted by maximum likelihood showed a similar topology of the trees obtained particularly for F. hepatica and F. gigantica. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that aspermic Fasciola found in this region of Iran has same genetic structures through the spermic F. gigantica populations in accordance to phylogenetic tree.