Affiliations 

  • 1 Parasitology Section, Department of Biology, Healthcare and Environment, Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Science, Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: aribas@ub.edu
  • 2 Swansea University, Department of Biosciences, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom
  • 3 CNRS-CIRAD, Faculty of Veterinary Technology, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 4 Department of Helminthology, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 5 Division of Environmental Medicine, Kochi Medical School, Kochi University, Oko, Nankoku 783-8505, Japan
  • 6 Sabah Parks, Lot 45 & 46 KK Times Square Coastal Highway, 88100 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
  • 7 Walai Rukhavej Botanical Research Institute (WRBRI), Biodiversity and Conservation Research Unit, Mahasarakham University, Maha Sarakham 44150, Thailand
Parasitol Int, 2020 Aug;77:102128.
PMID: 32330535 DOI: 10.1016/j.parint.2020.102128

Abstract

The whipworm Trichuris muris is known to be associated with various rodent species in the northern hemisphere, but the species identity of whipworm infecting rodents in the Oriental region remains largely unknown. We collected Trichuris of Muridae rodents in mainland and insular Southeast Asia between 2008 and 2015 and used molecular and morphological approaches to identify the systematic position of new specimens. We discovered two new species that were clearly distinct from T. muris, both in terms of molecular phylogenetic clustering and morphological features, with one species found in Thailand and another one in Borneo. We named the new species from Thailand as Trichuris cossoni and the species from Borneo as Trichuris arrizabalagai. Molecular phylogeny using internal transcribed spacer region (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) showed a divergence between T. arrizabalagai n. sp., T. cossoni n. sp. and T. muris. Our findings of phylogeographically distinct Trichuris species despite some globally distributed host species requires further research into the distribution of different species, previously assumed to belong to T. muris, which has particular relevance for using these species as laboratory model organisms.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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