Project description:Three species of land leeches, including a new combination Haemadipsa rjukjuanacomb. n., a new record for Haemadipsa picta Moore, as well as an updated description for Tritetrabdella taiwana (Oka), are reported in this study. Morphological characters and DNA barcode analysis were used to identify these species. In addition, since Haemadipsa rjukjuana had been regarded as a variety of the Japanese land leech Haemadipsa japonica for a century, morphological differences between these two species were also compared.
Project description:There are 60 species of blood-feeding land leeches, 50 species belonging to the family Haemadipsidae and 10 species belonging to the family Xerobdellidae. Despite recent papers on the land leeches, their taxonomic identification is not fully understood, especially at a species level. In Korea, there have been no historical records of the terrestrial leeches, but recently an unrecorded blood-feeding land leech was discovered at Gageo-do (Island), Korea. Molecular analysis was used to identify the species of 29 leeches collected from Mt. Dock-Sil in Gageo-do. Conventional PCR was conducted using nuclear 18S rRNA and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) genetic marker. The 18S rRNA sequences revealed that the leeches share 99.9% identity with Haemadipsa rjukjuana (inhabiting Taiwan), and the CO1 sequences revealed that the leeches are very close to H. rjukjuana (inhabiting Taiwan). The CO1 sequences were separated into 2 categories, 1 with 94.6% and the other with 94.3% similarity to the H. rjukjuana L00115A (inhabiting Taiwan). This new finding of the land leech is the first record in Korea. In addition, the north range of the distribution of the blood-feeding leech (Hirudiniformes: Haemadipisidae) should be reconsidered including Korea.
Project description:Land leeches of genus Haemadipsa (Family Haemadipsidae) are widely distributed in South East Asia. Haemadipsa crenata Ngamprasertwong is a blood-feeding species firstly reported from Thailand. A complete mitochondrial genome of H. crenata was characterized in this study for further genetic exploration on land leech. The reads were assembled into a circular mitogenome of 14,725 bp in length. The AT content of H. crenata mitogenome is 76.79%. The annotated mitogenome contains 22 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs, and 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), and the structure of PCG open reading frames was confirmed. Finally, the phylogenetic relationship of H. crenata and other leech species were reconstructed using mitogenomes.
| S-EPMC8218832 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The complete mitochondrial genome project of Haemadipsa tianmushana
