Characterization of porcine and ovine Oesophagostomum spp. by isoenzymaticpatterns and restriction-fragment-length polymorphisms (RFLPs)

Four different morphological and biometrical populations of Oesophagostomum have been identified, using classical taxonomy methods, from Sus scrofa do mestica (pigs): O. dentatum (Od), O. quadrispinulatum (Oq), O. granatensis (Og), and a fourth population, including individuals with morphological and biometric parameters overlapping these three species that were clasified a s Oesophagostomum sp. The G6PD and MDH isoenzymatic patterns did not discri minate between the three species, while GPI showed a diagnostic isoenzymati c pattern for Oq. Og showed identical G6PD, GPI and MDH isoenzymatic patter n as Od. Furthermore, after rDNA amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the uncut PCR product showed that the ITS2 of these three species h ad a similar size of 320 base pairs (bp). Restriction-fragment-length polym orphisms (RFLP) were analyzed after digestion of the ITS2 with 13 different restriction enzymes. After electrophoretic separation of the digested PCR products, only one unique differentiating pattern of bands was observed for Od and Oq. This was when Sau3AI was used, while Og showed an identical ban d pattern to Od. Thus, our studies provided no evidence for the existence o f Og and Od as differentiated populations. O. venulosum was isolated from s heep and goat; G6PD and MDH isoenzymatic patterns discriminated this specie s from porcine species of Oesophagostomum. The ITS2 region appeared as a di fferent band of 380 bp from those observed for porcine Oesophagostomum spec ies. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.