RESUMO
The specific status of the head and body lice of humans has been debated for more than 200 yr. To clarify the specific status of head and body lice, we sequenced 524 base pairs (bp) of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene of 28 head and 28 body lice from nine countries. Ten haplotypes that differed by 1-5 bp at 11 nucleotide positions were identified. A phylogeny of these sequences indicates that these head and body lice are not from reciprocally monophyletic lineages. Indeed, head and body lice share three of the 10 haplotypes we found. F(ST) values and exact tests of haplotype frequencies showed significant differences between head and body lice. However, the same tests also showed significant differences among lice from different countries. Indeed, more of the variation in haplotype frequencies was explained by differences among lice from different countries than by differences between head and body lice. Our results indicate the following: (1) head and body lice do not represent reciprocally monophyletic lineages and are conspecific; (2) gene flow among populations of lice from different countries is limited; and (3) frequencies of COI haplotypes can be used to study maternal gene flow among populations of head and body lice and thus transmission of lice among their human hosts.
Assuntos
DNA Mitocondrial , Complexo IV da Cadeia de Transporte de Elétrons/genética , Infestações por Piolhos/parasitologia , Pediculus/enzimologia , Animais , DNA Mitocondrial/análise , Haplótipos , Humanos , Pediculus/classificação , Pediculus/genéticaRESUMO
We sequenced part of the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA gene of 23 specimens of Sarcoptes scabiei from eight wombats, one dog and three humans. Twelve of the 326 nucleotide positions varied among these mites and there were nine haplotypes (sequences) that differed by 1-8 nucleotides. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that these mites were from two lineages: (1) mites from wombats from Victoria, Australia, and mites from the humans and dog from the Northern Territory, Australia (haplotypes 1-4, 9); and (2) mites from the humans and dog from the Northern Territory (haplotypes 5-8). Mites from the three different hosts (wombats, a dog and humans) had not diverged phylogenetically; rather, these mites had similar 12S sequences. Thus, we conclude that these mites from wombats, humans and a dog are closely related, and that they diverged from a common ancestor relatively recently. This conclusion is consistent with the argument that people and/or their dogs introduced to Australia the S. scabiei mites that infect wombats in Australia . So, S. scabiei, which has been blamed for the extinction of populations of wombats in Australia, may be a parasitic mite that was introduced to Australia with people and/or their dogs. These data show that the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene may be a suitable population marker of S. scabiei from wombats, dogs and humans in Australia.
Assuntos
Cães/parasitologia , Marsupiais/parasitologia , RNA Ribossômico/genética , RNA/genética , Proteínas Ribossômicas/genética , Sarcoptes scabiei/genética , Escabiose/veterinária , Animais , Marcadores Genéticos , Genética Populacional , Haplótipos , Humanos , Proteínas Mitocondriais , Filogenia , RNA Mitocondrial , Sarcoptes scabiei/classificação , Escabiose/epidemiologia , Escabiose/parasitologia , Vitória/epidemiologiaRESUMO
A new paper by Kajander et al. undermines the general view that mitochondria do not recombine. The authors discovered the existence of 'sublimons', rearranged mitochondrial genomes present at very low levels in healthy human patients. Crucially, the different rearranged mitochondrial genomes can theoretically be interconverted through intramitochondrial recombination. The putative operation of intramitochondrial recombination should impact on our ideas of how mitochondrial genes evolve, particularly with respect to how mitochondrial genomes rearrange.
