title: Genetic evidence against a morphologically suggestive conspecificity of Dermacentor reticulatus and D. marginatus (Acari:Ixodidae).
abstract: International Journal for Parasitology 25: 1413-1419. Dermacentor reticulatus and D. marginatus exhibit overlapping phenotypes. The possibility of conspecificity was investigated on the nucleotide level by comparing DNA sequences of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS 2) of the rDNA gene. The inter-specific polymorphism was more than 20-times greater than the intra-specific polymorphism of 3 D. reticulatus strains of different geographic origins. Furthermore, the degree of polymorphisms between D. reticulatus and D. marginatus was found to be of the same order of magnitude as that between D. andersoni and D. variabilis, for which separate species status is accepted. These genomic findings do not support a possible conspecificity of D. reticulatus and D. marginatus.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Vergleichende Tropenmedizin und Parasitologie, Universität München, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zahler
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gothe
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rinder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics*; D003870:Dermacentor / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017344:Genes, Insect; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal