Abstract
Despite high diversity in the Oriental region, ticks of the genus
have been neglected regarding their genetic data and vector potential. This study aimed to genetically characterize three species of the genus
:
,
and
infesting goats and sheep, and
spp. associated with these tick species in the Hindu Kush Himalayan range of Pakistan. Altogether, 834 ticks were collected by examining 120 hosts including goats (64/120, 53.3%) and sheep (56/120, 46.6%), in which 86 (71.6%) hosts were found to be tick-infested. The morphologically identified ticks were subjected to DNA extraction and PCR for the amplification of partial 16S rDNA and
fragments.
spp. associated with the collected ticks were detected through the amplification of
,
and
partial fragments. The 16S rDNA of
and
showed a maximum identity of 100% with the sequences of the same species, whereas the 16S rDNA of
showed the highest identity of 93-95% with
. The
sequence of
displayed 100% identity with the same species. In comparison, the
sequences of
and
showed maximum identities of 87.65-89.22% with
and 89.34% with
, respectively. The
sequence of
sp. from
showed the highest identity of 97.89% with
subsp.
, while the
and
fragments from the same DNA samples revealed 100% and 98.16% identity with
sp. and "
Rickettsia longicornii", respectively. Another
sequence amplified from
ticks showed 100% identity with
, while the attempts to amplify
and
for
were unsuccessful. In the phylogenetic tree, the 16S rDNA of
clustered with the corresponding species while its
clustered with
. Both 16S rDNA and
sequences of
clustered with
. The
sequence of
sp. was clustered individually in the spotted fever (SF) group of
, while the
sequence of
was clustered with the same species in the transition group of
. In the SF group, the rickettsial
and
sequence clustered with undetermined
sp. and "
Rickettsia longicornii", respectively. This is the earliest study regarding the genetic characterization of
. This study indicated that ticks belong to the genus
have the potential of harboring and/or transmitting
spp. in the region.