Genetic and phylogenetic evaluations of Schistosoma turkestanicum isolated from goats in Western Iran.

Abstract

Background: Schistosomiasis, a zoonotic parasitic infection, poses significant challenges to the animal husbandry industry, leading to substantial economic losses. Despite its impact, there is limited data on the genotypes of Schistosoma (=Orientobilharzia) turkestanicum in Iran.

Aims: The present study aimed to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships of Schistosoma turkestanicum isolated from goats by analyzing the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit 1 (Cox1) gene sequence in Lorestan province, located in Western Iran.

Methods: DNA extraction was performed on 20 male parasitic worms, and the mitochondrial Cox1 gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process, and sent for sequencing after purification by ethanol alcohol. The sequences were trimmed using CLC Main Workbench software. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted using the Neighbor-Joining method with 1000 bootstrap replicates in MEGA6 software to assess evolutionary relationships between the Cox1 gene sequence obtained in this study (GenBank accession No. PP627151) and various S. turkestanicum sequences obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Additionally, this software was also used to plot the genetic distance matrix (nucleotide differences and similarities).

Results: Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the parasite isolated in this study was S. turkestanicum.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that the S. turkestanicum lineage identified in this study is closely related to those found in Mazandaran province, Iran, as well as to African Schistosoma species.