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Genetic variation in sympatric Ascaris populations from humans and pigs in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1998

WEIDONG PENG ,
T. J. C. ANDERSON ,
XIANMIN ZHOU  and
M. W. KENNEDY
WEIDONG PENG
Affiliation:
Division of Infection and Immunity, Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK Department of Parasitology, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang 330006, China
T. J. C. ANDERSON
Affiliation:
Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
XIANMIN ZHOU
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang 330006, China
M. W. KENNEDY
Affiliation:
Division of Infection and Immunity, Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK
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Abstract

It has recently been shown using genetic markers that Ascaris in humans and pigs in Central America comprise reproductively isolated populations. We present a similar analysis for a region of China in which close association between pigs and humans has been the norm for thousands of years, and agricultural practices will result in frequent exposure to eggs from both sources. DNA fragments from selected regions of mitochondrial and ribosomal DNA were amplified by PCR and allelic forms identified following digestion with a panel of restriction enzymes, using DNA from a total of 115 individual worms from both people and pigs from 2 neighbouring villages. Significant frequency differences in both mtDNA haplotypes and the rDNA spacer were found between the 2 host-associated populations, indicating that they represented reproductively isolated populations. Mitochondrial haplotype frequencies were different from those observed in Guatemala and also from other Asian Ascaris populations, suggesting low levels of gene flow between populations. However, we found no evidence for significant heterogeneity in the genetic composition of Ascaris infrapopulations in either humans or pigs, possibly indicative of agricultural practices in China which have resulted in a random distribution of alleles within the parasite populations.

Keywords

Mitochondrial DNAribosomal DNAAscaris lumbricoidesAscaris suumChina
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 117 , Issue 4 , October 1998 , pp. 355 - 361
Copyright
1998 Cambridge University Press

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