Three species (Hyalomma asiaticum, Rhipicephalus turanicus and H.sulcata)of ticks identified from lizards in arid desert regions of Xinjiang

Background: Ticks are obligate hematophagous ectoparasites of vertebrate animals including human with wide distribution over the world, which are vectors of some human diseases. To date, the species discrimination and phylogenetic relationships among ticks on lizards in China are still unclear. The morphological method is not sufficient for identification of damaged, engorged or immature specimens by the loss of morphological criteria or by the lack of morphological criteria. So, Molecular technique was applied tothis study. Methods In this study, the 12S, 16S rDNA and COI fragments of 31 ticks collected from Eremias multiocellata -lizard from 4 arid desert regions of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous regions in China, were sequenced. 47 Chinese ticks from hedgehog and 1 tick from brushwood were included in this study as reference sample. To infer the phylogenetic relationships among them, 66 12S rDNA, 104 16S rDNA and 85 COI sequences of ticks retrieved from GenBank were also included. All samples identified with phylogenetic and network analyses. Results The three Bayesian analyses results (12S, 16S rDNA and COI fragments ) are consistent. They revealed that the 31 ticks from lizards belong to 3 genus and 3 species: 11 were identified as Hyalomma asiaticum , 3 as Rhipicephalus turanicus and 17 ticks belong to Haemaphysalis sulcata . Our results also indicated that the collected ticks from hedgehog were identified as Hyalomma asiaticum (38) and Rhipicephalus turanicus (9), the tick from brushwood was identified as Hyalomma asiaticum . All of these ticks collected from lizard were in small size ranged from 1 to 2 mm. Besides, some of these ticks share the same genotype with their counterparts in neighboring countries. The characteristics of ticks found in this study in Xinjiang may be closely related to the geographical environment. Conclusions Our study is the first attempt to investigate the ticks on lizards from the arid desert regions of Xinjiang in China, all of the discoveries on ticks in this study is closely related to the geographical environment in Xinjiang. which would provide more information to the control of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in the northern China.