title: Evidence of new species of Haematoloechus (Platyhelminthes: Digenea) using partial cox1 sequences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Haematoloechus, digeneans parasites of amphibians, is a species-rich genus with more than 50 species around the globe. Establishing an accurate taxonomy for this group has been difficult due to high intraspecific variability. Nuclear DNA sequences have given independent information about species validity and phylogeny of the group.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this paper, I test the performance of partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) gene in the differentiation of recognized species of the genus and in the detection of potential new taxa. Samples from 13 nominal species were sequenced, plus four samples that could not be assigned to any described species based on morphology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parsimony analysis of the amplified 360 bp fragment resulted in six most parsimonious trees showing the same grouping of samples, differing in the samples' arrangement within those groups. All 13 species were recovered on the trees, and five potential new species are shown.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Additional sampling and sequencing is necessary to support this hypothesis, but with this preliminary information the search for diagnostic characters that allow the description of the new taxa is less difficult.
authors.affiliation: Estación de Biología Chamela, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, San Patricio, Jalisco, Mexico. vleon@ibiologia.unam.mx
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: León-Règagnon
mesh_terms: D000663:Amphibians / Q000469:parasitology; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D050259:Genes, Mitochondrial; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008800:Mexico; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010986:Platyhelminths / Q000145:classification* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018509:DNA, Helminth; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D015801:Helminth Proteins; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV