Genetic diversity of Syphacia Seurat, 1916 (Nematoda: Oxyuridae) across the hybrid zone of their rodent hosts in Russia

The genetic diversity of Syphacia nematodes (intestinal parasites of rodents) was studied in the hybrid zone of two sister species of common voles, Microtus arvalis and Microtus obscurus, in the Oka River valley, east of Moscow. Syphacia nematodes of other rodent species (Microtus rossiaemeridionalis, Alexandromys oeconomus, Sylvaemus uralensis, and Apodemus agrarius) that inhabit the area were also studied. Phylogenetic trees for the studied nematodes were inferred from the analysis of nuclear ITS1+5.8S+ITS2, LSU rDNA, and mitochondrial CO1 gene partial sequences. Syphacia nematodes of the studied area form three well-defined clades in the phylogenetic tree of this genus. Morphological analysis revealed similarities between the obtained sequences with those of known Syphacia species from the GenBank database, which enabled identifying these three clades up to the species level: S. montana, S. agraria, and S. frederici. Russian haplotypes of Syphacia are different from West European and East Asian haplotypes with pronounced genetic distances. A high level of specificity was reported for two of these three species (S. frederici, only in Sylvaemus uralensis; S. agraria, only in Apodemus agrarius). S. montana was found in different species of voles. Remarkably, S. montana specimens from M. arvalis and M. obscurus were genetically uniform, while S. montana, specimens from hybrids between these two species formed a separate clade distant from those originating from non-hybridised hosts.