title: Evidence that clade A and clade B head lice live in sympatry and recombine in Algeria.
abstract: Pediculus humanus L. (Psocodea: Pediculidae) can be characterized into three deeply divergent lineages (clades) based on mitochondrial DNA. Clade A consists of both head lice and clothing lice and is distributed worldwide. Clade B consists of head lice only and is mainly found in North and Central America, and in western Europe and Australia. Clade C, which consists only of head lice, is found in Ethiopia, Nepal and Senegal. Twenty-six head lice collected from pupils at different elementary schools in two localities in Algiers (Algeria) were analysed using molecular methods for genotyping lice (cytochrome b and the multi-spacer typing (MST) method. For the first time, we found clade B head lice in Africa living in sympatry with clade A head lice. The phylogenetic analysis of the concatenated sequences of these populations of head lice showed that clade A and clade B head lice had recombined, suggesting that interbreeding occurs when lice live in sympatry.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes (URMITE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD 198 UMR 6236), University of Aix Marseilles, Faculté de Médecine, Marseilles, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boutellis
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bitam
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fekir
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mana
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raoult
mesh_terms: D000462:Algeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002648:Child; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D021901:DNA, Intergenic / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D064747:Lansoprazole; D010373:Lice Infestations / Q000145:classification* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010374:Pediculus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D061350:Sympatry
chemical_list: D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D019476:Insect Proteins; D064747:Lansoprazole; D045303:Cytochromes b
keywords: Pediculus humanus capitis; clade A; clade B; genotype; recombination; sympatry