Morphological and genetic polymorphisms in Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille 1806) from the Iberian Peninsula.

ABSTRACT: Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a tick species characterized by high intraspecific variability, even among populations occupying the same habitats. This study investigated whether two distinct phenotypes of R. sanguineus, collected from four geographically separated regions, are associated with specific nucleotide polymorphisms in the mitochondrial cox1 and 16S rRNA gene regions-markers commonly employed in phylogenetic analyses. Morphometric analysis based on established criteria clearly distinguished two morphotypes-Morphotype 1 and Morphotype 2-with statistically significant differences. This morphological differentiation was supported by phylogenetic and genetic divergence analyses, primarily based on mitochondrial cox1 sequences, which revealed six polymorphic sites within the analyzed fr

SUBMITTER: Rosa F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12446115 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature