Grupo de investigación: Paleoparasitología. Instituto de Investigaciones en Producción, Sanidad y Ambiente (IIPROSAM), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UNMdP-CONICET, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), La Plata, Argentina.
Parasitology. 2020 Mar;147(3):371-375. doi: 10.1017/S0031182019001719. Epub 2019 Dec 20.
It is generally assumed that the digenean human liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, gained entry to South America during the 15th century upon arrival of Europeans and their livestock. Nonetheless in Patagonia, Argentina, digenean eggs similar to F. hepatica have been observed in deer coprolites dating back to 2300 years B.P. The main objective of our present study was to identify and characterize these eggs using an ancient DNA (aDNA) study. Eggs were isolated and used for aDNA extraction, amplification and sequencing of partial regions from the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 1 mitochondrial genes. Also, phylogenetic trees were constructed using Bayesian and maximum likelihood. Our results confirm the presence of F. hepatica in South America from at least 2300 years B.P. This is the first report and the first aDNA study of this trematode in South America prior to the arrival of the European cattle in the 15th century. The present work contributes to the study of phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographical aspects of F. hepatica and its settlement across America.
一般认为，肝片形吸虫（Fasciola hepatica）是在 15 世纪欧洲人和他们的牲畜到达时进入南美洲的。然而，在阿根廷的巴塔哥尼亚，在可追溯到公元前 2300 年的鹿粪便化石中发现了与肝片形吸虫相似的双腔吸虫卵。我们目前研究的主要目的是使用古 DNA（aDNA）研究来鉴定和描述这些卵。从细胞色素 c 氧化酶亚基 1 和烟酰胺腺嘌呤二核苷酸脱氢酶亚基 1 线粒体基因的部分区域中分离和提取卵 DNA 进行扩增和测序。还使用贝叶斯和最大似然法构建了系统发育树。我们的研究结果证实了肝片形吸虫至少在公元前 2300 年就已经存在于南美洲。这是在 15 世纪欧洲牛到达之前，对南美洲这种吸虫的首次报道和首次 aDNA 研究。本研究有助于研究肝片形吸虫的系统发育和古生物地理学方面及其在美洲的传播。
