Abstract
BackgroundRhipicephalus sanguineus belongs to a complex of hard tick species with high veterinary-medical significance. Recently, new phylogenetic units have been discovered within R. sanguineus, which therefore needs taxonomic revision. The present study was initiated to provide new information on the phylogeography of relevant haplotypes from less studied regions of Europe and Africa. With this aim, molecular-phylogenetic analyses of two mitochondrial markers were performed on 50 ticks collected in Hungary, the Balkans, countries along the Mediterranean Sea, Kenya and Ivory Coast.ResultsIn the “temperate lineage” of R. sanguineus, based on cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) and 16S rRNA genes, Rhipicephalus sp. I was only found in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Basin (with relatively homogenous haplotypes), whereas Rhipicephalus sp. II occurred in the middle-to-western part of this region (with phylogenetically dichotomous haplotypes). Ticks identified as R. leporis (based on morphology and cox1 gene) were found in Kenya and Ivory Coast. These clustered phylogenetically within R. sanguineus (s.l.) (“tropical lineage”).ConclusionsIn the Mediterranean Basin two mitochondrial lineages of R. sanguineus, i.e. Rhipicephalus sp. I and Rhipicephalus sp. II exist, which show different geographical distribution. Therefore, data from this study confirm limited gene flow between Rhipicephalus sp. I and Rhipicephalus sp. II, but more evidence (analyses of nuclear markers, extensive morphological and biological comparison etc.) are necessary to infer if they belong to different species or not. The phylogenetic relationships of eastern and western African ticks, which align with R. leporis, need to be studied further within R. sanguineus (s.l.) (“tropical lineage”).
Highlights
Rhipicephalus sanguineus belongs to a complex of hard tick species with high veterinary-medical significance
The type-species of this group was formerly called R. sanguineus, with cosmopolitan distribution owing to its high adaptability
A latitude-linked geographical pattern of the two major R. sanguineus groups has been confirmed by further, global scale studies, which showed with molecular-phylogenetic methods [7,8,9] or crossbreeding experiments [10] that two species might exist under this name, and both occur in the New World and in the Old World
Summary
Rhipicephalus sanguineus belongs to a complex of hard tick species with high veterinary-medical significance. A latitude-linked geographical pattern of the two major R. sanguineus groups has been confirmed by further, global scale studies, which showed with molecular-phylogenetic methods [7,8,9] or crossbreeding experiments [10] that (at least) two species might exist under this name, and both occur in the New World and in the Old World. These two clades have been designated as “tropical species” or northern lineage and “temperate species” or southern lineage [8, 11]. The geographical distribution of these groups has recently been shown to be associated with climate variables, such as temperature [12]
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