title: Molecular approaches to the identification of Bulinus species in south-west Nigeria and observations on natural snail infections with schistosomes.
abstract: The current study considers the distribution of a small sample of 138 Bulinus snails, across 28 localities within eight Nigerian states. Snails were identified using a combination of molecular methods involving both DNA sequencing of a partial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) fragment and restriction profiles obtained from ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (its) amplicons. The results showed that the majority of Bulinus samples tested belonged to the species Bulinus truncatus while only two were Bulinus globosus. The use of RsaI restriction endonuclease to cleave the ribosomal its of Bulinus, as a method of species identification, was adopted for the majority of samples, this being a quicker and cheaper method better suited to small laboratory environments. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the schistosome Dra1 repeat within each of the collected Bulinus samples was employed to determine the extent and distribution of infected snails within the sample areas. Successful amplification of the Dra1 repeat demonstrated that 29.7% of snails were infected with schistosomes. Sequencing of the partial schistosome its from a small subset of snail samples suggested that some snails were either penetrated by both Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma bovis miracidia or hybrid miracidia formed from the two species.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Parasitology Laboratory, Public Health Division, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. pheabian@yahoo.co.uk
authors.forename: O P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Akinwale
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rollinson
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Stothard
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ajayi
authors.forename: D O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Akande
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Ogungbemi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Duker
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Gyang
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Adeleke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002033:Bulinus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000469:parasitology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific / Q000378:metabolism; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009549:Nigeria; D010802:Phylogeny; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012547:Schistosoma / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific; C040158:GTAC-specific type II deoxyribonucleases