title: Mitochondrial genomes of two Babesia taxa from sheep in China as a foundation for population genetic and epidemiological investigations.
abstract: Here, we sequenced, assembled and annotated the mitochondrial (mt) genomes of two operational taxonomic units of Babesia from sheep from China using a deep sequencing-coupled approach. Then, we defined and compared the gene order of these mt genomes (~5.8 to 6.2kb in size), assessed sequence differences in mt genes among Babesia taxa and evaluated genetic relationships among these taxa and related apicomplexans (Theileria) for which mt genomic data sets were available. We also identified mt genetic regions that might be useful as markers for future population genetic and molecular epidemiological studies of Babesia from small ruminants. We propose that the sequencing-bioinformatic approach used here should be applicable to a wide range of protists of veterinary importance.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Gansu, PR China; Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Gansu, PR China.
authors.forename: Guiquan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Pasi K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Korhonen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Anson V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Koehler
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Neil D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Ross S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Gansu, PR China. Electronic address: yinhong@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, PR China. Electronic address: robinbg@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Robin B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Gasser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001403:Babesia / Q000235:genetics*; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000469:parasitology; D002681:China; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D005828:Genetics, Population; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D023281:Genomics; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012756:Sheep / Q000469:parasitology; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000469:parasitology; D034561:Sheep, Domestic / Q000469:parasitology*
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan
keywords: Babesia/babesiosis; Bioinformatics; Illumina sequencing; Mitochondrial genome; Relationships; Systematics