Abstract
Babesia gibsoni (B. gibsoni), an intracellular apicomplexan protozoan, poses great threat to canine health. Currently, little information is available about the B. gibsoni (WH58) endemic to Wuhan, China. Here, the mitochondrial (mt) genome of B. gibsoni (WH58) was amplified by five pairs of primers and sequenced and annotated by alignment with the reported mt genome sequences of Babesia canis (B. canis, KC207822), Babesia orientalis (KF218819), Babesia bovis (AB499088), and Theileria equi (AB499091). The evolutionary relationships were analyzed with the amino acid sequences of cytochrome c oxidase I (cox1) and cytochrome b (cob) genes in apicomplexan parasite species. Additionally, the mt genomes of Babesia, Theileria, and Plasmodium spp. were compared in size, host infection, form, distribution, and direction of the protein-coding genes. The full size of the mt genome of B. gibsoni (WH58) was 5865 bp with a linear form, containing terminal-inverted repeats on both ends, six large subunit ribosomal RNA fragments, and three protein-coding genes: cox1, cob, and cytochrome c oxidase III (cox3). Babesia, Theileria, and Plasmodium spp. had a similar mt genome size of about 6000 bp. The mt genomes of parasites that cause canine babesiosis showed a slightly smaller size than the other species. Moreover, Babesia microti (R1 strain) was about 11,100 bp in size, which was twice larger than that of the other species. The mt form was linear for Babesia and Theileria spp. but circular for Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium knowlesi. Additionally, all the species contained the three protein-coding genes of cox1, cox3, and cob except Toxoplasma gondii (RH strain) which only contained the cox1 and cob genes. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that B. gibsoni (WH58) was more identical to B. gibsoni (AB499087), B. canis (KC207822), and Babesia rossi (KC207823) and most divergent from Babesia conradae in Babesia spp. Despite the highest similarity to B. gibsoni (AB499087) reported in Japan, B. gibsoni (WH58) showed notable differences in the sequence of nucleotides and amino acids and the property in virulence to host and in vitro cultivation. This study compared the mt genomes of the two B. gibsoni isolates and other parasites in the phylum Apicomplexa and provided new insights into their differences and evolutionary relationships.
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Abbreviations
- B. gibsoni :
-
Babesia gibsoni
- P. falciparum :
-
Plasmodium falciparum
- B. conradae :
-
Babesia conradae
- B. canis :
-
Babesia canis
- B. rossi :
-
Babesia rossi
- B. microti :
-
Babesia microti
- B. rodhaini :
-
Babesia rodhaini
- T. equi :
-
Theileria equi
- Mt.:
-
mitochondrial
- Cob :
-
cytochrome b
- Cox1 :
-
cytochrome c oxidase I
- Cox3 :
-
cytochrome c oxidase III
- LSU:
-
large subunit
- SSU:
-
small subunit
- rRNAs:
-
ribosomal RNAs
- TIRs:
-
terminal inverted repeats
- PPE:
-
parasitized erythrocytes
- gDNA:
-
genomic DNA
- PCR:
-
polymerase chain reaction
- ORF:
-
open reading frame
- tRNA:
-
transfer RNA
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Funding
This study was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFD0500402), the National Basic Science Research Program (973 program) of China (Grant No. 2015CB150300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31772729), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (Grant No. 2017CFA020).
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Performed the experiments: JG, PH, and XM. Participated in the data analysis: JG, LH, XM, PH, JC, SW, and ML. Helped with the diagnostic assays: XM and PH. Edited the manuscript: LH, JG, CH, and JZ. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
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All experiments were performed under the approval of Laboratory Animals Research Centre of Hubei Province and the Ethics Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University (Permit number: HZAUCA-2016-007).
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Section Editor: Dana Mordue
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Guo, J., Miao, X., He, P. et al. Babesia gibsoni endemic to Wuhan, China: mitochondrial genome sequencing, annotation, and comparison with apicomplexan parasites. Parasitol Res 118, 235–243 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-6158-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-6158-2