MORPHOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF LECITHODENDRIUM ASWANI N. SP. (DIGENEA: LECITHODENDRIDAE) FROM BATS IN ASWAN, EGYPT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Aswan University, 81528 Aswan, Egypt

Abstract

Bats attract zoologists' attention due to their well-documented vulnerability to a wide array of
animal and human diseases. During the current parasitological survey of bat parasites from
October 2016 to March 2020, Lecithodendrium aswani n. sp. was detected and described based
on morphological and molecular characters from the liver tissue of Rhinopoma hardwickii
cystops, establishing a new infection site and locality record in Aswan Governorate. Light and
scanning electron microscopy studied the morphology and surface topography, respectively. L.
aswani n. sp. was detected in 1% (5/500) bats. Also, molecular analyses showed that the partial
ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region sequence deposited to GenBank database under the accession
number MW598491 as distinct species related to other Lecithodendrium sequences. Phylogenetic
study proved a strong connection between the new species’ DNA and family Lecithodendriidae.

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