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Genetic Evidence of an Isolation Barrier between Flea Subspecies of Citellophilus tesquorum (Wagner, 1898) (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae).

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the relationship between two subspecies of the Citellophilus tesquorum flea, C. t. altaicus and C. t. sungaris, which are vectors of the bacterium Yersinia pestis that causes human plague across the vast territories of the Palearctic. Adult fleas were collected from 16 localities and 11 populations in 2019 and 2020. Specimens were morphologically verified for subspecies status and analysed for mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) DNA, nuclear ribosomal cluster internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and ITS2, and Wolbachia-infection status. Our results demonstrated a genetic difference between C. t. altaicus and C. t. sungaris. According to mitochondrial data, the genetic distance between clades of C. t. altaicus and C. t. sungaris was comparable with the species divergence of the genus Callopsylla, which is closely related to Citellophilus. All studied populations of C. t. altaicus were Wolbachia-infected, whereas all studied populations of C. t. sungaris were symbiont-free. Data for ITS1 and ITS2 had much lower phylogenetic signals than mitochondrial data; however, diagnostic substitutions for C. t. altaicus and C. t. sungaris delimitation were also revealed. Analysis of a hardly accessible report on cross experiments allowed us to conclude the partial postzygotic isolation between these subspecies. Taken together, the molecular-genetic, geographical, morphological, and reproductive isolation findings verified that C. t. altaicus and C. t. sungaris subspecies could be considered as different species.

SUBMITTER: Ilinsky Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8879408 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Genetic Evidence of an Isolation Barrier between Flea Subspecies of Citellophilus tesquorum (Wagner, 1898) (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae).

Ilinsky Yury Y Lapshina Vasilina V Verzhutsky Dmitry D Fedorova Yulia Y Medvedev Sergey S

Insects 20220125 2

This study investigated the relationship between two subspecies of the Citellophilus tesquorum flea, C. t. altaicus and C. t. sungaris, which are vectors of the bacterium Yersinia pestis that causes human plague across the vast territories of the Palearctic. Adult fleas were collected from 16 localities and 11 populations in 2019 and 2020. Specimens were morphologically verified for subspecies status and analysed for mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I ...[more]

PMID: 35206699

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Adult fleas are haematophagous ectoparasites of warm-blooded vertebrates, particularly mammals. Among them, the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) and the human flea (Pulex irritans) have high veterinary-medical significance, owing to their cosmopolitan distribution and role in the transmission of important vector-borne pathogens. While the taxonomy of Ct. felis has been investigated on a morphological basis during the past decades, its molecular-phylogenetic analyses have been only recently conducted. This study expands the knowledge on Ct. felis from hitherto less studied geographical regions, and includes representatives from additional flea families, less investigated with molecular approaches. METHODS:Fleas were collected in four countries of the Mediterranean Basin (Croatia, Italy, Malta and Israel), as well as in Hungary, from domestic and wild carnivores, rodents and humans. The DNA extracts of representative fleas (n = 148), belonging to ten species of eight genera, were used for PCR amplification of part of their cytochrome c oxidase subunits 1, 2 (cox1, cox2) and 18S rRNA genes, followed by sequencing and phylogenetic analyses. RESULTS:The majority (65.6%) of Ct. felis felis cox2 sequences showed 99.4-100% similarity to each other (haplogroup A), whereas those from Malta and Israel had 98.1-98.7% sequence similarity (haplogroup B), and a third sequence from Israel (haplotype C) had as low as 96.3% sequence similarity in comparison with a reference sequence from group "A". Except for the shape of the head, no consistent morphological differences (e.g. in chaetotaxy) were found between haplogroups "A" and "C". Haplotypes of Ct. canis were genetically more homogenous, with 99.6-100% sequence similarity to each other. However, when P. irritans collected from humans was compared to those from three species of wild carnivores, these only had 96.6% cox2 similarity. The mouse flea, Leptopsylla segnis and the northern rat flea, Nosopsyllus fasciatus were both shown to have haplotypes with low intraspecific cox2 similarities (96.2 and 94.4%, respectively). Taken together, differences between mitochondrial lineages within four flea species exceeded that observed between two Chaetopsylla spp. (which had 97.3% cox2 similarity). The topologies of cox1 and cox2 phylogenetic trees were in line with relevant sequence comparisons. Conversely, 18S rRNA gene analyses only resolved differences above the species level. CONCLUSIONS:Ctenocephalides felis felis, P. irritans, L. segnis and N. fasciatus were shown to have such a high level of mitochondrial gene heterogeneity, that the uniformity of these flea taxa should be reconsidered. Although the present results are limited (especially in the case of L. segnis and N. fasciatus), there appears to be no geographical or host restriction, which could explain the divergence of these genetic lineages.

Dataset Information

Genetic Evidence of an Isolation Barrier between Flea Subspecies of Citellophilus tesquorum (Wagner, 1898) (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae).

Publications

Genetic Evidence of an Isolation Barrier between Flea Subspecies of <i>Citellophilus tesquorum</i> (Wagner, 1898) (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae).

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