Genetic Diversity of Dioctophyma renale in Northeast Argentina and Southern Brazil

ARCE, LF; FERNANDEZ, F; GIORELLIO, N; BUTTI, M; MALDONADO, L; ARRABAL, JP; NATALINI, M BELEN; KOWALEWSKI, M; PEDRASSANI, D; ZILLI, F; FRANCHINI, G; BELDOMENICO, PABLO; KAMENETZKY, L

Anywhere and Everywhere

Congreso; Molecular Parasitology Meeting XXXI; 2020

Genetic Society of America

The dynamics of pathogens between domestic and wild fauna remain poorly understood. Numerous conservation problems emerge on that border. Concerning this matter, genomes are used to design of new molecular tools for the sensitive detection of helminths that cause risk diseases from domestic to wild carnivores. Dioctophyma renale is a parasitic nematode that infects the kidney of mammals (mainly Order Carnivora). It can grow and exceed the meter, destroying the kidney. Therefore, its infection is strongly debilitating and even fatal. Numerous cases in domestic dogs were observed on the Argentine coast (prevalence above 30%). There are even reports of infection in wild carnivores including maned wolf (Crysocyon brachyurus); making this parasite a possible threat to the conservation of some endangered species. From genome Project (developed by our laboratory), a mitochondrial genome of D. renale was assembled and three molecular markers of different sizes from cytochrome oxidase I (COX1) gene were designed. Forty-six adults of Dioctophyma renale were collected from interventions in veterinary clinics and from necropsies of wild fauna in different locations in northeastern Argentina and southern Brazil. DNA was Extracted from each sample and those markers were amplified by PCR. The amplified products were typed by SNPs analysis and phylogenetically analyzed with sequences available in the GenBank, which came from Japan, Peru, Canada and Iran. Ten local genetic variants of South America were observed, without geographic differentiation among the localities of Argentina, Peru and Brasil, but a great separation with regard to the sequences of other regions of the world. Nor was any structuring by host species observed. This could suggest a high circulation of the parasite among South American localities and among the different host species. Phylogenies constructed with the different markers are consistent with each other. Molecular evidence suggests that Dioctophyma renale populations were in South America long enough to develop local genetic variants. They could have come from the north of the continent and dispersed between Brazil and Argentina on more than one occasion. Finally, the same variants can infect and be transmitted between domestic and wild mammals in the studied region.