• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.153-163
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• 2005

To clarify the species validity of the genus Spirometra, the biological characteristics of Spirometra erinacei and S. mansonoides by developmental stages were compared. Their experimental life cycles were maintained under the same laboratory conditions, and the biological characteristics were experimentally observed in vivo and in vitro conditions. Eggs of S. erinacei and S. mansonoides were $59.6\pm35.6{\mu}m\;and\;61.4\pm35.8{\mu}m$ in each average size. Both of them became fully matured and hatched in 8 days after incubation at $29^{\circ}C$. The coracidium of S. erinacei was $43.6\times35.8{\mu}m$ in average size, and retained a oncosphere of $39.3\times31.0{\mu}m$. That of S. mansonoides was $43.0\times36.3{\mu}m$ in average size, and retained a oncosphere of $38.3\times30.8{\mu}m$. Procercoids of S. erinacei were somewhat larger than those of S. mansonoides. Both species of procercoids older than 7 days in cyclops had minute spines at the anterior end, calcium corpuscles in the parenchyme and a cercomer at the posterior end. The procercoids older than 4 days in cyclops were infective to tadpoles. The procercoids older than 8 days revealed the infectivity to mice. Plerocercoids of S. erinacei were somewhat lager than those of S. mansonoides when they were compared by age of worms in tadpoles. Both species of plerocercoids older than 5 days were infective to mice. Among 138 plerocercoids of S. erinacei recovered from the experimental mice, $55(39.9\%)$ were detected in the neck portion, $35 (25.4\%)$ in the back portion, $25(18.1\%)$ in the anterior legs, and $23 (16.7\%)$ were found in the abdomen. In case of S. mansonoides plerocercoids, $42.0\%$ were found in the neck portion, $23.8\%$ in the back portion, $14.4\%$ in the abdomen, $13.3\%$ in the anterior legs, and $6.1\%$ were found in the posterior legs. From the above results, it was confirmed that the biological characteristics of S. erinacei and S. mansonoides are almost same when their life cycles are mainteined under the same laboratory condition. Accordingly, these findings suggest that S. erinacei and S. mansonoides may be the same species.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.277-282
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• 1997

The only observed morphological difference between Spirometra erinqsei and S. mcnsonoides is the uterine shape of the mature proglottid. Two species of worms are thought to be evolutionarily closely related. Biomolecular colnparison of the ho worms by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis was conducted to observe the genetic distance. The 285 rDNA, mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mCOI), and ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITSI) fragments were obtained from the worms by PCR. The PCR products were cleaved by 5 four-base pair restriction enzyme combinations (Msp I, Hae III, Alu I, Cfo I, Rsa I) , electrophoresed and analyzed with PAUP 3.1.1. The fragment Patterns or 285 rDNA and Lni demonstrated that two worms were in identical systematic tree with bootstrap number 94 and 100, respectively As for mCOI, bootstrap number was 74 in a different tree. Above results are indicative of recent common ancestry between S. etinocei and S. mansonoides.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.503-507
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• 2016

The genus Spirometra belongs to the family Diphyllobothriidae and order Pseudophyllidea, and includes intestinal parasites of cats and dogs. In this study, a plerocercoid labeled as Spirometra mansonoides from the USA was examined for species identification and phylogenetic analysis using 2 complete mitochondrial genes, cytochrome c oxidase I (cox1) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3 (nad3). The cox1 sequences (1,566 bp) of the plerocercoid specimen (USA) showed 99.2% similarity to the reference sequences of the plerocercoid of Korean Spirometra decipiens (GenBank no. KJ599679), and 99.1% similarity in regard to nad3 (346 bp). Phylogenetic tree topologies generated using 4 analytical methods were identical and showed high confidence levels with bootstrap values of 1.00, 100%, 100%, and 100% for Bayesian inference (BI), maximum-likelihood (ML), neighbor-joining (NJ), and maximum parsimony (MP) methods, respectively. Representatives of Diphyllobothrium and Spirometra species formed a monophyletic group, and the sister-genera status between these species was well supported. Trapezoic proglottids in the posterior 1/5 region of an adult worm obtained from an experimentally infected cat were morphologically examined. The outer uterine loop of the uterus coiling characteristically consisted of 2 complete turns. The results clearly indicated that the examined Spirometra specimen from the USA matched to S. decipiens very well, and indicated possible presence of the life cycle of this species in this region.