Abstract
The genus Digramma (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea) described by Cholodkovsky in 1915 differs from the genus Ligula only by the number of the reproductive organs per proglottis. However, the occurrence of transitional forms in Digramma raises much confusion concerning its generic validity. In the present study, cestodes previously designated as Digramma and Ligula were collected from lakes in the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and also from Qinghai Lake on Qingzang plateau, China. The entire internal transcribed spacer of the ribosomal DNA (ITS rDNA) and 5′ end of 28S rDNA were compared between the Digramma and Ligula specimens. The low level of nucleotide variation between the two genera may imply that cestodes in the genus Digramma are paraphyletic to the Ligula genus, and Digramma is a synonym of Ligula. However, whether previously identified Digramma cestodes represent different species in the genus Ligula requires further investigation.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to express our gratitude to Professor X.H. Liao, Zhongshan University, China, for providing Ligula specimens from Qinghai Lake. Many other colleagues in our laboratory are acknowledged for taking part in the collection of ligulids. This study was supported by a project (30025035) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The nucleotide sequences have been deposited in the GenBank database under the accession numbers AF354291-AF354293, AY121750-AY121752, AF520953-AF520957.
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Luo, H.Y., Nie, P., Yao, W.J. et al. Is the genus Digramma synonymous to the genus Ligula (Cestoda: Pseudophyllidea)?. Parasitol Res 89, 419–421 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-002-0802-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-002-0802-5