The role of polymorphisms at β tubulin isotype 1 codons 167 and 200 in benzimidazole resistance in cyathostomins

Cyathostomins are recognised as the primary parasitic pathogens of horses. Despite the use of benzimidazole (BZ) anthelmintics in horses for more than 40 years and widespread drug resistance in the field, the mechanisms of resistance to this drug class in cyathostomins are not fully understood. The results presented here constitute a detailed comparison of β tubulin gene mutations and mRNA transcript levels in populations of BZ-susceptible (BZ-S) and -resistant (BZ-R) cyathostomins. Full-length cDNA sequences were generated from individual parasites of four (n = 24) and two (n = 19) cyathostomin species for isotypes 1 and 2, respectively. Levels of intra- and inter-specific nucleotide sequence variation were comparable with previous findings and single amino acid substitutions were observed at several locations. On comparison of BZ-S and BZ-R parasites, differences were consistently observed at only two sites, codons 167 and 200 of the β tubulin isotype 1 gene. Four populations of parasites were genotyped at these two loci by pyrosequencing; one that was fenbendazole (FBZ)-sensitive (FBZ-rS), two that were FBZ-resistant (FBZ-R1 and -R2) and one that was oxibendazole-resistant (OBZ-R), as previously assessed by faecal egg count reduction tests. This analysis revealed statistically significant differences between FBZ-rS and FBZ-R populations at both loci and this was highly significant for codon 167. For the OBZ-R population, the only significant difference compared with the FBZ-rS population was observed at codon 200. These observations suggest that mutations at codons 167 and 200 are important in BZ resistance and raise the possibility that selection at different loci may occur in FBZ- and OBZ-resistant parasites. Multiple parasites (n = 158) were genotyped for both codons 167 and 200, the majority of which showed homozygous ‘resistant’ mutations at one locus only and none showed homozygous ‘resistant’ genotypes at both loci. No significant differences in mRNA levels of β tubulin isotypes 1 and 2 were observed between the FBZ-rS and FBZ-R1 populations.