MULTILOCUS SEQUENCE TYPING AND GENETIC STRUCTURE OF FASCIOLA ISOLATES FROM LIVESTOCK IN KERMANSHAH, IRAN

Background and Aim:asciolosis is a parasitic disease caused by liver fluke species of the genus Fasciola, Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica. There is limited information aboutthe diversity of the genus Fasciola in Iran.Implementation of molecular strategies for parasite typing,particularly multilocus sequence typing (MLST)represents an improved approach for genetic variabilityand population dynamics analyses. For the first time, we introduce a Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) method to genetically characterize Fasciola species.Methods:Thirty-fourFasciola species isolated from livestock and from Kermanshah province were characterized using MLST approach. DNA fragments (500-800 bp) from 5 housekeeping genes were sequenced. A MLST analysis was developed based on the genes Cyt b, ND1, HSP 70, Pold, Pepck.Phylogeny analysis was conducted both on concatenated MLST loci and on each individual locusResults:A total of 3154 bp were analyzed for each isolate. In all,52 and 72 polymorphic sites were identified for Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica, respectively. The neutrality hypothesis could not be rejected. The overall MLSTscheme exhibited a high level of discrimination (Simpson Index = 0.9929) for Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica.Conclusion:We suggest that MLST will have a strongimpact on molecular epidemiological studies of fasciolosis disease and the phylogenetics of its causative agent.

Keywords:

Fasciola , genotyping , livestock , MLST , Iran