Abstract
The complete mitochondrial genome of Argas persicus isolate China is reported for the first time in this study. Its entire mitogenome is 14, 426 bp in length, contained 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and 1D-loop regions. The phylogenetic analysis by maximum likelihood method show that A. persicus isolate China and the others of genus Argas are in the same clade. This is the first complete mitochondrial genome of soft tick in China.
Ticks (Ixodida) are hematophagous ectoparasites of vertebrates. There are three families of ticks: hard tick (Ixodidae), soft tick (Argasidae), and Nuttalliellidae (Burger et al. Citation2014). Argas persicus (Acari: Argasidae) has documented reports in all the Zoogeographic Regions of the world with the exception of Antarctica, including the majority of African countries, Australia, China, India, Iran, Italy, United States, Paraguay, Argentina, Cuba, and Chile (Muñoz-Leal et al. Citation2018). In 2018, there was an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in China, and soft ticks are natural hosts of ASFV (African Swine fever virus) (Wang et al. Citation2018). In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of A. persicus isolate China was obtained, which provided a basis for the classification study of the genus Argas.
The adult of A. persicus were collected on a chicken farm, Xingtai City, Hebei Province, China, on 19 June 2018. The individual tick was stored in the Department of Parasitology, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University (specimen no. BYNKPL-180619). Species identification was conducted by Professor Sun Yi based on morphological features. Primers were designed for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and sequencing on the basis of other soft tick mitogenome sequence. (Burger et al. Citation2014).
The total length of the A. persicus mt genome was 14,426 bp (GenBank accession no. MT012684), which contained 13 protein-coding genes (cox1-3, nad1-6, nad4L, atp6, atp8 and cytb), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a D-loop. The arrangement of the A. persicus was identical with that of soft ticks (Burger et al. Citation2014). The mitochondrial genome homology of A. persicus from Kenya and A. persicus from China was 94%, and the mutation rate is relatively high compared with other species. The A. persicus mt genome encoded 3609 amino acids in total. The concatenated amino acid sequences of 13 protein-coding genes were analyzed with Bayesian inference, using Haemaphysalis concinna (NC_034785) as an outgroup (Chang et al. Citation2018). The result shows that the A. persicus isolate China and the others of genus Argas are in the same clade ().
Figure 1. Phylogenetic relationships of Argas persicus isolate China and other species based on mitochondrial sequence data.
This is the first complete mitochondrial genome of soft tick in China. At the same time, the soft tick in China is a potential host for the spread of ASFV, so it is necessary to carry out relevant research.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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References
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