Rao Jiang, Cui Xinyuan, Gao Yiwen, Hu Yuanjia, Shen Yongyi
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2025 Aug 5;28:101126. doi: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2025.101126. eCollection 2025 Dec.
(Cestoda: Taeniidae) is a recently resurrected genus based on molecular data, comprising only four valid species: , , , and . In this study, a total of 479 rodents were collected. In total, 46 livers with visible cysts were observed from five species of rodents collected in three locations of Guangdong province, China, in 2023. Molecular analysis utilizing 18S rRNA sequences indicated that 38 of the 46 liver cysts were infected by , suggesting that this genus represents the predominant tapeworm responsible for the visible liver cysts in rodents. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) was further used to obtain the mitochondrial genomes of these tapeworms. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 12 protein-coding genes (PCGs) and 18S rRNA both demonstrated the formation of two distinct clades: one comprising , and the other representing a novel clade that is positioned as the sister clade to , exhibiting genetic distance of 11.91 %-12.38 % for the 12 PCGs and 3.22 %-5.25 % for the 18S rRNA. Given the deep inter-species genetic distance, the novel clade identified in this study may be the fifth species within the genus , designated as sp. Both and sp. were found to utilize not only wild rodents (, and ) but also house rats ( and ) as intermediate hosts. This finding indicates that they may have both sylvatic and synanthropic transmission cycles, raising concerns regarding their potential threat to humans and domestic animals.
（带绦虫纲：带科）是一个最近根据分子数据重新确立的属，仅包含四个有效物种： 、 、 和 。在本研究中，共收集了479只啮齿动物。2023年在中国广东省三个地点收集的五种啮齿动物中，总共观察到46个带有可见囊肿的肝脏。利用18S rRNA序列进行的分子分析表明，46个肝脏囊肿中有38个被 感染，这表明该属是导致啮齿动物肝脏出现可见囊肿的主要绦虫。进一步使用宏基因组下一代测序（mNGS）来获取这些绦虫的线粒体基因组。基于12个蛋白质编码基因（PCG）和18S rRNA的系统发育分析均显示形成了两个不同的分支：一个分支包含 ，另一个代表一个新的分支，该分支被定位为 的姐妹分支，12个PCG的遗传距离为11.91%-12.38%，18S rRNA的遗传距离为3.22%-5.25%。鉴于种间遗传距离较大，本研究中鉴定出的新分支可能是该属中的第五个物种，命名为 sp.。发现 和 sp.不仅利用野生啮齿动物（ 、 和 ），还利用家鼠（ 和 ）作为中间宿主。这一发现表明它们可能具有野生动物传播和人畜共患传播循环，引发了对它们对人类和家畜潜在威胁的担忧。
