PAKISTAN VETERINARY JOURNAL

Pak Vet J, 2024, 44(1): 148-154

High Genetic Variability in Full-length cox2 and nad6 Genes of Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto and Echinococcus ortleppi Recovered from Cattle

Muhammad Abdullah Malik^1¶, Muhammad Irshad Subhani^2¶, Mughees Aizaz Alvi^2,3¶*, Majed H. Wakid^4,5, Abdulsalam A.M. Alkhaldi⁶, Muhammad Saqib², Li Li³, Muzaffar Ali Khan⁷, You-Yu Liu³, Bao-Quan Fu³, Hong-Bin Yan^3* and Wan-Zhong Jia^3*

¹Department of Parasitology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan; ²Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan; ³State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, College of Veterinary Medicine, Lanzhou University, Gansu Province Research Center for Basic Disciplines of Pathogen Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology and Key Laboratory of Ruminant Disease Prevention and Control (West), Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, National Para-reference Laboratory for Animal Echinococcosis, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, P.R. China; ⁴Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia; ⁵Special Infectious Agents Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; ⁶Biology Department, College of Science, Jouf University, Sakaka 72341, Saudi Arabia; ⁷Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
^¶These authors contributed equally to this study
*Corresponding author: mugheesaizazalvi@gmail.com; yanhongbin@caas.cn; jiawanzhong@caas.cn

Abstract

Echinococcus granulosus (G1/G3) and E. ortleppi (G5) are prevalent worldwide. Numerous studies have been conducted to characterize these parasites and utilized mainly cox1, nad1, and nad5 genes. However, there is a lack of comprehensive global data on genetic diversity in E. granulosus and E. ortleppi based on cox2 and nad6 genes. The current pilot research work was executed to look into the genetic variation of the E. granulosus (G1/G3) and E. ortleppi (G5) populations in Pakistan using cox2 and nad6 and infer phylogenetic relationships with other E. granulosus sensu lato populations. Followed by cyst collection from slaughtered cattle in Pakistan and DNA extraction, the full mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 2 and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 were amplified. After confirmation of the identity of isolates through BLAST analysis, population indices pertaining to neutrality and diversity were calculated using the DNASp program. MJNs were constructed using PopArt for intraspecific data investigation. Nucleotide sequences (n=17) analyzed in this investigation were matched with GenBank reference sequences and Echinococcus genotypes G1 (n = 5) and G3 (n = 7) were discovered. Five sequences were identified as E. ortleppi (G5). For E. granulosus (G1/G3), a high haplotype diversity (Hd=1.00) was found for cox2 (582 bp), nad6 (456 bp), and concatenated cox2-nad6 (1038 bp) gene sequences. The overall value of Tajima’s D for the entire population was negative and insignificant. Regarding E. ortleppi, cox2–nad6 π and Hd were 0.07290 and 1, respectively with insignificant Fu’s Fs. A dataset of 40 cox2 and 35 nad6 sequences was utilized to form a median-joining network to compare the geographical kinship between the Pakistani isolates and sequences reported elsewhere. The analysis of concatenated cox2-nad6 obtained in this study revealed a high haplotype diversity (1.00) while low nucleotide diversity (0.08207) was observed. Non-significant values of Tajima’s D = -0.54361 and Fu’s Fs = 1.303 were observed. High haplotype diversity in the current study shows a significant level of genetic divergence across haplotypes. The amalgamation of low π and high Hd indicates population expansion. We recommend amplifying a greater number of isolates in the future to ascertain the resolution power of cox2 and nad6 genes in the context of genotype differentiation.

To Cite This Article: Malik MA, Subhani MI, Alvi MA, Wakid MH, Alkhaldi AAM, Saqib M, Li L, Khan MA, Liu Y-Y, Fu B-Q, Yan H-B and Jia W-Z, 2024. High genetic variability in full-length cox2 and nad6 genes of Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto and Echinococcus ortleppi recovered from cattle. Pak Vet J, 44(1): 148-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2024.141

Abstract

ISSN 0253-8318 (Print)ISSN 2074-7764 (Online)

ISSN 0253-8318 (Print)
ISSN 2074-7764 (Online)