Abstract
Introduction Leishmania parasites are mainly transmitted by hematophagous insects belonging to the genus Phlebotomus. Phlebotomus perniciosus is a major vector of visceral leishmaniasis in the western part of the Mediterranean basin, reported from North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) and Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia).
Due to its proven role in the transmission of L. infantum and large distribution, its genetic structure requires more interest. Material and methods Specimens of Phlebotomus perniciosus were trapped in Kherrata and Bougaa two districts located in East of the capital city of Algeria. 40 sequences (700bp of mitochondrial DNA, COI gene) were amplified and sequenced.
In addition, 85 sequences of Ph. perniciosus from different countries of the Mediterranean basin were downloaded from NCBI and BOLD databases and included in the analysis. Results and discussion The phylogenetic tree using Neighbour-joining (1000 bootstraps) revealed three distinct clades: one included only the Moroccan specimens, the second included specimens from Portugal and Spain and the last one included specimen from Algeria, Tunisia, Italy and Slovenia.
On the other hand, median-joining network showed that the common ancestral was either lost or mis-sampled between the three clades. The statistical analysis revealed the presence of 24 haplotypes.
The Fst value showed significant difference between samples from Morocco, Portugal and Spain and the rest of the countries. No positive correlation between the distance of sampling and their location was shown, suggesting that the observed differences could be linked to the environmental factors rather than to the distance.