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Genetic variation and population structure of Fasciola hepatica: an in silico analysis

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Abstract

Fasciola hepatica is a trematode leading to heavy economic setbacks to the livestock sector globally. The population’s genetic information and intimate kinship level are frequently assessed using analysis of mitochondrial DNA. In this analysis, we retrieved cox1 (n = 247) and nad1 (n = 357) sequences of F. hepatica from the NCBI GenBank database and aligned the sequences with the respective reference sequences using MEGA software. The median joining network was drawn using PopArt software while neutrality and diversity indices were estimated with the help of DnaSp software. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree was constructed using the MEGA software package. A total of 46 and 98 distinctive haplotypes were observed for cox1 and nad1 genes, respectively. Diversity indices indicated high haplotype and nucleotide diversities in both genes. Positive Tajima’s D and Fu’s Fs values were found for the entire population of both the genes under study. The cox1 and nad1 gene segments in this study showed high Tajima’s D values, suggesting a low likelihood of future population growth. The Tajima’s D value of the nad1 gene sequence is lower (2.14910) than that of the cox1 gene sequence (3.40314), which suggests that the former is growing at a slower rate. However, the region-wise analysis revealed that both the cox1 and nad1 genes showed deviation from neutrality suggesting a recent population expansion as a result of an excess of low-frequency polymorphism. Furthermore, the overall host-wise analysis showed positive and significant Tajima’s D values for the cox1 and nad1 gene sequences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to provide insights into genetic variations and population structure of F. hepatica at a global scale using cox1 and nad1 genes. Our findings suggest the existence of specific variants of F. hepatica in different parts of the world and provide information on the molecular ecology of F. hepatica. The results of this study also mark a critical development in upcoming epidemiological investigations on F. hepatica and will also contribute to understanding the global molecular epidemiology and population structure of F. hepatica.

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Data availability statement

All data supporting the conclusions of this article are included in the article.

Funding

We acknowledge the funding received from the National Key Research and Development Program (2022YFC2304000; 2022YFD1302101), NBCITS (CARS-37) and Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (Y2022GH13; 1610312020016).

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Author notes

  1. Mughees Aizaz Alvi and Adeel Khalid contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, College of Veterinary Medicine, Lanzhou University, National Para-Reference Laboratory for Animal Echinococcosis, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, 730046, China

    Mughees Aizaz Alvi, Li Li, Bao-Quan Fu, Hong-Bin Yan & Wan-Zhong Jia

  2. Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Mughees Aizaz Alvi, Adeel Khalid, Rana Muhammad Athar Ali & Muhammad Saqib

  3. Department of Parasitology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Warda Qamar

  4. Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Bilal Ahmad

  5. Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu, China

    Wan-Zhong Jia

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  1. Mughees Aizaz Alvi
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Contributions

MAA, AK, LL, and HBY conceptualized the study. The methodology was designed by MAA, MS, RMAA, and BA. Formal analysis was carried out by AK, MAA, RMAA, WQ, and MS. Writing of the original draft was done by MAA and AK while WZJ, HBY, and BQF edited the draft. WZJ supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Hong-Bin Yan or Wan-Zhong Jia.

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Alvi, M.A., Khalid, A., Ali, R.M.A. et al. Genetic variation and population structure of Fasciola hepatica: an in silico analysis. Parasitol Res 122, 2155–2173 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07917-0

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