Characterization of the fragmented mitochondrial genome of domestic pig louse Haematopinus suis (Insecta: Haematopinidae) from China

Abstract

The domestic pig louse Haematopinus suis is found worldwide wherever pig is raised. This ectoparasite causes direct damage to their hosts and also acts as a vector of various infectious disease agents. Despite its significance, molecular genetics, biology and systematics of H. suis has not been studied in detail. Herein, the entire mitochondrial (mt) genome of H. suis from China was sequenced, characterized and compared with that of H. suis from Australia. We identified 37 mt genes located on nine circular mt minichromosomes in H. suis from China, with 2.9 kb-4.2 kb in size and contains 2–8 genes and one non-coding region (1,957 bp-2,226 bp). The number of minichromosomes, gene content, and gene order in the mt genomes of H. suis from China and Australia is identical. The identity of both mt genomes (except for non-coding regions) was 96.3% between H. suis from China and Australia. For the 13 protein-coding genes, sequence differences in each gene at both the nucleotide and amino acid were 2.8–6.5% and 0.5–5.3%, respectively. The present study determined the entire mt genome of H. suis from China that provides novel genetic markers for studying the molecular genetics, biology and systematics of sucking louse.