Orientobilharzia turkestanicum is a member of Schistosoma genus based on phylogenetic analysis using ribosomal DNA sequences

In the present study, samples representing Orientobilharzia turkestanicum from cattle, sheep, cashmere goat and goat in Heilongjiang Province, China, were characterized and grouped genetically by sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS, including ITS-1 and ITS2) and 28S ribosomal DNA (28S rDNA). The ITS and 28S rDNA were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then sequenced and compared with that of other members of the Schistosomatidae available in GenBank™, and phylogenetic relationships between them were re-constructed using the neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony methods. The lengths of ITS-1, ITS-2 and 28S rDNA sequences for all O. turkestanicum samples from different hosts were 384 bp, 331 bp and 1304 bp, respectively. While the ITS-1 sequences of O. turkestanicum from each of the four different hosts, and ITS-2 of O. turkestanicum from cattle, sheep and cashmere goat were identical, respectively, the ITS-2 of O. turkestanicum from goat differed from that of O. turkestanicum from cattle, sheep and cashmere goat by one nucleotide. The 28S rDNA sequences of O. turkestanicum from sheep and cashmere goat were identical, but differed from that of O. turkestanicum from cattle and goat by two nucleotides, with the latter two also having identical 28S rDNA sequence. Phylogenetic analyses based on the combined sequences of the ITS-1 and ITS-2, or the 28S rDNA sequences placed O. turkestanicum within the genus Schistosoma, and it was phylogenetically closer to the African schistosome group than to the Asian schistosome group. These results should have implications for studying the origin and evolution of O. turkestanicum and other members of the Schistosomatidae.