Life cycle of Haemaphysalis doenitzi (Acari: Ixodidae) under laboratory conditions and its phylogeny based on mitochondrial 16S rDNA

Abstract

The paper investigated the life cycle of the hard tick Haemaphysalis doenitzi under laboratory conditions and its phylogeny based on mitochondrial 16S rDNA. The results revealed that the complete life cycle of H. doenitzi requires a mean duration of 109.6 days ranging from 91 to 137 days and the average prefeeding, feeding and premoulting periods of larvae, nymphs and females and the eggs hatching period are 18.7, 26.9, 38.9, and 25.1 days, respectively. In addition, the weight of engorged females is highly correlated with the number of egg masses laid (r = 0.936, P < 0.001). The female reproductive efficiency index and reproductive fitness index are 13.4 and 12.8, respectively. The mean weight of the engorged nymphs (2.77 mg) moulting to females is much higher than those (1.68 mg) moulting to males, which could be used as an index to predict sexes in this species. The ratio of male to female is 1:1.01. Moreover, multisequence alignments and phylogenetic tree constructed based on the mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences suggest that H. doenitzi is genetically close to H. longicornis.

Expression of a β-Mannosidase from Paenibacillus polymyxa A-8 in Escherichia coli and Characterization of the Recombinant Enzyme

“…Compared to the morphology, the microbial 16S rRNA sequence can more easily and accurately be used to classify a bacterium [26] . In the present study, the 16S rRNA of the strain A-8 (1459 bp) was amplified to identify its species.…”

Morphological and molecular identification of the brown dog tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus and the camel tick Hyalomma dromedarii (Acari: Ixodidae) vectors of Rickettsioses in Egypt

“…In recent years, the molecular characterization for taxonomic identification and phylogenetic purposes of ticks has been indispensable by DNA markers, including nuclear (18S rRNA) and mitochondrial (12S rRNA and 16S rRNA, and cytochrome c oxidase subunit-1 [CO1]) genes and nuclear regulatory non-translated stretches (second internal transcribed spacer [ITS2]) [44,47-50]. The 18S rRNA is best used for genera level identification [51] while the 16S rRNA, CO1, and ITS2 are the most useful markers for ticks taxonomy at species level [39,44,47-50,52-56].…”

“…The 18S rRNA is best used for genera level identification [51] while the 16S rRNA, CO1, and ITS2 are the most useful markers for ticks taxonomy at species level [39,44,47-50,52-56]. The 12S rRNA is used as a tool for examining relationships among recently diverged branches of tick phylogenies [50,53,57].…”

Life Cycle of Dermacentor everestianus Hirst, 1926 (Acari: Ixodidae) under Laboratory Conditions

“…The amount of eggs laid was low at the onset of oviposition, and reached the peak on the second day; thereafter, the egg amount was gradually decreased until the end of oviposition. The unimodel oviposition pattern was also observed in other tick species, including D. silvarum , Haemaphysalis doenitz [15], and Hyalomma asiaticum [16]. The egg incubation required an average of 27.7 days, which was much longer than that observed in D. silvarum (15.3 days on average, range 13–16 days) [12], but shorter than 32.1 days (range 25–40 days) observed in Haemaphysalis tibetensis under field conditions [16].…”