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First report, morphological and molecular characterization of Caenorhabditis brenneri (Nematoda: Rhabditidae) isolated from the giant African land snail Achatina fulica (Gastropoda: Achatinidae)

Biologia volume 77, pages 469–478 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Gastropods are extremely diverse taxa comprising nearly 60,000 species, of which, the giant African land snail, Achatina fulica is a well-known member. It is an invasive species, and it serves as vector and host for several free-living and parasitic nematodes. This makes studies on the diversity of nematodes isolated from gastropods be more emphasized. Studies have been conducted on other Caenorhabditis-gastropod associations such as in the model organism C. elegans, however, less attention is given to other Caenorhabditis species. Through morphological and morpho-taxometrical data, and analysis of the D2-D3 of 28S rDNA and 18S rDNA regions, nematodes found inside a dissected A. fulica cadaver from Kabacan, North Cotabato (7°6’3.076” N, 124°51’68.33” E) in Mindanao, Philippines were identified as Caenorhabditis brenneri. We herein report for the first time C. brenneri from A. fulica. Moreover, to our knowledge, this is also the first report of C. brenneri-gastropod association.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development Program-National Science Consortium (ASTHRDP-NSC) program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). We are grateful to Dr. Praikajan Nimkingrat from the National Biological Control Research Center of Khon Kaen University, Thailand, for the technical support with microscopic works, especially for the morpho-taxometrics part of this study. Sincere thanks are also due to Dr. Irma Tandingan-De Ley for providing us some reference materials and to the anonymous reviewers for helping us improve this manuscript.

Funding

This study is funded by Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development Program-National Science Consortium (ASTHRDP-NSC) program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Science, College of Science and Mathematics, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Andres Bonifacio, Tibanga, 9200, Iligan City, Philippines

    Michelle Anne Diano, Loel Dalan & Nanette Hope Sumaya

  2. FBL-Nematology Research Group, Premier Research Institute of Science and Mathematics, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, 9200, Iligan City, Philippines

    Michelle Anne Diano, Loel Dalan & Nanette Hope Sumaya

  3. Nematology Research Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Phougeishangbam Rolish Singh

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  1. Michelle Anne Diano
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Contributions

MAD and LBD did the field and laboratory works. MAD wrote the first draft of the manuscript. LBD helped in the morpho-taxometrics analysis, and editing of the manuscript. PRS carried out the sequence alignment, phylogenetic analysis, edited and improved the manuscript. NHS helped with the conceptualization of the research, shaped the research, supervised MAD and LBD, helped with the protocols during field and laboratory works, corrected, edited and improved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nanette Hope Sumaya.

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This research does not contain human participants. This research used A.fulica which is considered to be invasive and pest, and there was no live dissection conducted.

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Diano, M.A., Dalan, L., Singh, P.R. et al. First report, morphological and molecular characterization of Caenorhabditis brenneri (Nematoda: Rhabditidae) isolated from the giant African land snail Achatina fulica (Gastropoda: Achatinidae). Biologia 77, 469–478 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00972-x

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