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Evidence that clade A and clade B head lice live in sympatry and recombine in A lgeria
Author(s) -
BOUTELLIS A.,
BITAM I.,
FEKIR K.,
MA.,
RAOULT D.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
medical and veterinary entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2915
pISSN - 0269-283X
DOI - 10.1111/mve.12058
Subject(s) - clade , biology , sympatry , zoology , genotyping , phylogenetic tree , cytochrome b , evolutionary biology , genetics , gene , sympatric speciation , genotype
Pediculus humanus L. ( P socodea: P ediculidae) 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 N orth and C entral A merica, and in western E urope and A ustralia. Clade C , which consists only of head lice, is found in E thiopia, N epal and S enegal. Twenty‐six head lice collected from pupils at different elementary schools in two localities in A lgiers ( A lgeria) 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 A frica 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.