Evidence that clade A and clade B head lice live in sympatry and recombine in Algeria |
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| Authors: | A BOUTELLIS I BITAM K FEKIR N MANA D RAOULT |
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| Institution: | 1. Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes (URMITE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD 198 UMR 6236), University of Aix Marseilles, Faculté de Médecine, Marseilles, France;2. Laboratoire Biodiversité et Environnement: Interactions, Génomes, Département de biologie, Université des Sciences et technologies Houari BOUMEDIENE, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria |
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| Abstract: | Pediculus humanus L. (Psocodea: Pediculidae) can be characterized into three deeply divergent lineages (clades) based on mitochondrial DNA. Clade A consists of both head lice and clothing lice and is distributed worldwide. Clade B consists of head lice only and is mainly found in North and Central America, and in western Europe and Australia. Clade C, which consists only of head lice, is found in Ethiopia, Nepal and Senegal. Twenty‐six head lice collected from pupils at different elementary schools in two localities in Algiers (Algeria) were analysed using molecular methods for genotyping lice (cytochrome b and the multi‐spacer typing (MST) method. For the first time, we found clade B head lice in Africa living in sympatry with clade A head lice. The phylogenetic analysis of the concatenated sequences of these populations of head lice showed that clade A and clade B head lice had recombined, suggesting that interbreeding occurs when lice live in sympatry. |
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| Keywords: | Pediculus humanus capitis clade A clade B genotype recombination sympatry |
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