Abstract
Carnivores in the families Mustelidae and Mephitidae are essential hosts for the cranial roundworm genus Skrjabingylus. A high prevalence of Skrjabingylus chitwoodorum has been observed in the striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis. Genetic barcoding studies of other nematodes have successfully used the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) mitochondrial gene to analyze genetic variation and divergence. We tested the hypothesis that low population structuring occurs within S. chitwoodorum because M. mephitis is widespread across much of North America and has high levels of gene flow. We extracted DNA from 38 samples of Skrjabingylus removed from the sinuses of M. mephitis and one from the plains spotted skunk, Spilogale putorius interrupta, for amplification and sequencing of COI. Analysis of 492 base pairs confirmed all samples were S. chitwoodorum and showed low genetic divergence (1.0%) within Texas, but high haplotype diversity. Supporting our hypothesis, no obvious divergent lineages based on geographic location were recovered within the samples based on Maximum Likelihood analysis and median joining haplotype network analysis. In fact, samples of Skrjabingylus from New York and South Dakota showed little difference compared with samples from Texas.
Highlights
The endoparasitic nematode genus, Skrjabingylus, is known to target carnivore hosts in the family Mustelidae, such as weasels, minks, martens, and otters (Santi and Parker, 2012)
Sample sizes from each county ranged from one to four skunks. This allowed a broad coverage in Texas and five additional specimens were acquired from New York (3) and South Dakota (2)
cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences were obtained from 39 samples of Skrjabingylus from 38 M. mephitis hosts and 1 S. p. interrupta host, repre senting areas of Texas (33), New York (3), and South Dakota (2)
Summary
The endoparasitic nematode genus, Skrjabingylus, is known to target carnivore hosts in the family Mustelidae, such as weasels, minks, martens, and otters (Santi and Parker, 2012). The length of spicules is a common way to differentiate Skrjabingylus in the Americas because they are each so distinct from one another; S. nasicola ranges from 180 to 232 μm (Lankester, 1983), S. lutrae ranges from 239 to 275 μm (Lankester and Crichton, 1972), S. santaceciliae ranges from 385 to 428 μm (Carreno et al, 2005), and S. chitwoodorum having known ranges of 540 to 890 μm (Hill, 1939; Webster, 1965). The cycle repeats when the skunk passes J1 larvae (all species except S. lutrae are viviparous) through the gastrointestinal system and gastropods or other intermediate hosts ingest them in the fecal matter (Hansson, 1967; Santi and Parker, 2012; Fig. 1)
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