PAN AFRICAN JOURNAL OF LIFE SCIENCES
e-ISSN: 2672-5924
Volume 8, No. 3, December 2024
Pages 257-264
DOI: 10.36108/pajols/4202/80.0360
Molecular Characterization and Phylogeny of Bulinus species in North Central, Nigeria
Joseph O. Sunday1*, Opeyemi G. Oso1, Abdulkareem O. Babamale2, Samuel U. Ugbomoiko2, Olaoluwa P Akinwale3.
1Parasitology Unit, Department of Zoology, Kwara State University Malete, Nigeria
2Parasitology Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
3Molecular Parasitology Research Laboratory, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Nigerian Insti-tute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria
Abstract
Background: Bulinus species are intermediate host of urogenital schistosomiasis, which is widespread in Nige-ria. Morphological identification of these snails is problematic; hence, the molecular method is recommended. Therefore, this study aims to characterize Bulinus species sampled from schistosome-endemic areas of North Central Nigeria.
Methods: Bulinus species were collected from two Local Government Areas in North Central Nigeria. Infection in snails were detected by targeting Dra1 repeat using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Snails were character-ized by amplifying the internal transcribed spacer region of the 5.8s ribosomal RNA gene and restriction frag-ment length polymorphism. Some representative samples were sequenced, and the phylogenetic relationship was compared with other African sequences from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) data-base.
Results: Out of 368 snails sampled, 37.5 % were positive for schistosome infection. Our study recorded a few B. globosus compared with B. truncatus. Similarly, more snails were recovered from Patigi Local Government (LGA) than Edu LGA. However, schistosome infections in Edu LGA (39.3%) were higher than in Patigi LGA (37.8%). The phylogenetic relationship shows that the dominant species (Bulinus truncatus) matched other se-quences deposited in the EMBL database. However, some mutations were noticeable within the sequence of B. truncatus in our study, but the expressed proteins were not affected.
Conclusion: The infection status in snail species is high, contributing to schistosomiasis transmission in the study area. PCR-RFLP showed more accuracy in snail identification than morphological methods.
Keywords: Bulinus Species, Phylogenetic analysis, molecular identification, PCR/RFLP