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Skin-scale genetic structure of Sarcoptes scabiei populations from individual hosts: empirical evidence from Iberian ibex-derived mites

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Abstract

The objective of the present study was to examine the extent of genetic diversity among Sarcoptes scabiei individuals belonging to different skin subunits of the body from individual mangy hosts. Ten microsatellite primers were applied on 44 individual S. scabiei mites from three mangy Iberian ibexes from Sierra Nevada Mountain in Spain. Dendrograms of the mites from the individual Iberian ibexes, showing the proportion of shared alleles between pairs of individual mites representing three skin subpopulations (head, back, and abdomen subunits), allowed the clustering of some mite samples up to their skin subunits. This genetic diversity of S. scabiei at skin-scale did not have the same pattern in all considered hosts: for the first Iberian ibex (Cp1), only mites from the head subunit were grouped together; in the second individual (Cp2), the clustering was detected only for mites from the abdomen subunit; and for the third one (Cp3), only mites from the back subunit were clustered together. Our results suggest that the local colonization dynamics of S. scabiei would have influenced the nonrandom distribution of this ectoparasite, after a single infestation. Another presumable explanation to this skin-scale genetic structure could be the repeated infestations. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of genetic structuring among S. scabiei at individual host skin-scale. Further studies are warranted to highlight determining factors of such trend, but the pattern underlined in the present study should be taken into account in diagnosis and monitoring protocols for studying the population genetic structure and life cycle of this neglected but important ectoparasite.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of the guards of the hunting reserve of Sierra Nevada Natural Space, and RNM118 investigation group (Junta de Andalucía-Spain) for supporting SA’s investigation stay in Italy. The study was supported by MURST contract year 2004, Prot. 2004078701 001 (LR) and a grant by SCI Italian Chapter. XQZ was supported by a grant from the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University, China (Grant No. IRT0723) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Team Project, Grant no. 5200638). The experiments comply with the current laws of the countries in which the experiments were performed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas, s. n., 23071, Jaen, Spain

    S. Alasaad, M. Sarasa & J. M. Pérez

  2. Dipartimento di Produzioni Animali, Epidemiologia ed Ecologia, Università di Torino, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, 10095, Grugliasco, Italy

    S. Alasaad, D. Soglia, R. Rasero & L. Rossi

  3. Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Apartado 1056, 41080, Sevilla, Spain

    R. C. Soriguer

  4. Espacio Natural de Sierra Nevada, Carretera Antigua de Sierra Nevada, Km 7.5, E-18071, Pinos Genil, Granada, Spain

    J. E. Granados

  5. College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510642, People’s Republic of China

    X. Q. Zhu

Authors
  1. S. Alasaad
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  2. D. Soglia
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  3. M. Sarasa
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  4. R. C. Soriguer
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  5. J. M. Pérez
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  6. J. E. Granados
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  7. R. Rasero
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  8. X. Q. Zhu
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  9. L. Rossi
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to X. Q. Zhu or L. Rossi.

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Alasaad, S., Soglia, D., Sarasa, M. et al. Skin-scale genetic structure of Sarcoptes scabiei populations from individual hosts: empirical evidence from Iberian ibex-derived mites. Parasitol Res 104, 101–105 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-008-1165-3

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