TY - JOUR
T1 - Genetic diversity, fixation and differentiation of the freshwater snail Biomphalaria pfeifferi (Gastropoda, Planorbidae) in arid lands
AU - Mintsa Nguema, Rodrigue
AU - Langand, Juliette
AU - Galinier, Richard
AU - Idris, Mohamed A.
AU - Shaban, Mahmoud A.
AU - Al Yafae, Salem
AU - Moné, Hélène
AU - Mouahid, Gabriel
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. We thank the staff of the Meteorological Station of Salalah for providing climatological data. This research was financially supported by the Sultan Qaboos University, the Ministry of Health in Oman, the French CNRS, and the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. The French Laboratory is a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Biological Control and Snail/Parasite relationships.
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - The freshwater snail Biomphalaria pfeifferi is the main intermediate host of human intestinal Bilharziasis. It is widely distributed in Africa, Madagascar and middle-eastern countries, and its habitat includes wetlands, and arid to semi-arid areas. Based on analysis of 18 microsatellites, we investigated reference allelic variation among 30 populations of B. pfeifferi from three drainage basins in Dhofar, Oman (the eastern limit of its distribution). This is an arid to semi-arid region, with a 9,000-year history of very low rainfall, but is subject to unpredictable and destructive flash floods. In this context we showed that genetic fixation was very high compared to genetic differentiation which was moderate and, that, relative to B. pfeifferi populations from wetlands, the populations in Dhofar show evidence of lower levels of genetic diversity, a higher degree of genetic fixation, a quasi-absence of migration, and a higher level of genetic drift. Despite the extreme conditions in the Dhofar habitat of this species, it is able to survive because of its very high self-fertilization (approaching 100 %) and fecundity rates.
AB - The freshwater snail Biomphalaria pfeifferi is the main intermediate host of human intestinal Bilharziasis. It is widely distributed in Africa, Madagascar and middle-eastern countries, and its habitat includes wetlands, and arid to semi-arid areas. Based on analysis of 18 microsatellites, we investigated reference allelic variation among 30 populations of B. pfeifferi from three drainage basins in Dhofar, Oman (the eastern limit of its distribution). This is an arid to semi-arid region, with a 9,000-year history of very low rainfall, but is subject to unpredictable and destructive flash floods. In this context we showed that genetic fixation was very high compared to genetic differentiation which was moderate and, that, relative to B. pfeifferi populations from wetlands, the populations in Dhofar show evidence of lower levels of genetic diversity, a higher degree of genetic fixation, a quasi-absence of migration, and a higher level of genetic drift. Despite the extreme conditions in the Dhofar habitat of this species, it is able to survive because of its very high self-fertilization (approaching 100 %) and fecundity rates.
KW - Arid lands
KW - Biomphalaria pfeifferi
KW - Differentiation index
KW - Fixation indices
KW - Microsatellites
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U2 - 10.1007/s10709-013-9715-8
DO - 10.1007/s10709-013-9715-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 23543205
AN - SCOPUS:84879782003
SN - 0016-6707
VL - 141
SP - 171
EP - 184
JO - Genetica
JF - Genetica
IS - 4-6
ER -
