Publication Database

Morphological and phylogenetic analyses of Rhipicephalus microplus ticks from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar (2018)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Roy, Babul Chandra (WE 13)

Estrada-Peña, Agustín

Krücken, Jürgen (WE 13)

Rehman, Abdul

Nijhof, Ard Menzo (WE 13)

Quelle

Ticks and tick-borne diseases

Bandzählung: 9

Heftzählung: 5

Seiten: 1069 – 1079

ISSN: 1877-959x

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

DOI: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2018.03.035

Pubmed: 29661691

Kontakt

Institut für Parasitologie und Tropenveterinärmedizin

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 62310
parasitologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Ticks of the Boophilus subgenus, classified in the genus Rhipicephalus, are widespread in subtropical and tropical regions, but knowledge on their distribution in Asia is fragmentary. The most important representatives belong to the Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus complex, which is composed of species that share many morphological similarities and are therefore difficult to distinguish. In this study, adult Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) ticks from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan were subjected to phylogenetic and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses. Phylogenetic analyses of cytochrome oxidase 1 (cox1), internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and 12S rRNA gene sequences confirmed that the R. microplus complex consists of at least five taxa: R. annulatus, R. australis, and R. microplus clades A-C. Ticks from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan were assigned to R. microplus clade C. SEM images revealed a wide range of variation in the morphology of the clade C adults, including morphological features previously identified as critical for distinguishing R. microplus from R. australis, which is illustrative for the complications in identifying species within the R. microplus complex using morphology only. Further morphological, genomic and crossbreeding studies are required to elucidate the species status of R. microplus clades A-C.