Prevalence and Nucleotide sequence relatedness among Wenyonia species (Cestoda: Caryophyllidea) in Synodontis clarias from Lekki Lagoon, Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract Background: Wenyonia Woodland, 1923 represents a monophyletic lineage of Caryophyllidean tapeworms that exclusively infect mochokid catfishes of the genus Synodontis. In Nigeria, information on the molecular characterization of Wenyonia sp tracing the phylogenetic relationship within the genus is lacking. This study was therefore aimed to evaluate the genetic relatedness between and among Wenyonia species based on the partial nucleotide sequence of the D1-D3 region of the 28SrRNA gene and the mt region (trnK + nad3 + trnS + trnW + cox1) genes.Methods and results: One hundred and twenty Synodontis clarias from the Lekki Lagoon were purchased fresh at the Oluwo market Epe, Lagos, Nigeria between November 2020 and April 2021. Total genomic DNA of identified Wenyonia species recovered from the fishes were extracted. PCR was done to amplify the divergent domains (D1-D3) region of the 28SrRNA gene and the mt region (trnK + nad3 + trnS + trnW + cox1) genes in the Wenyonia species, and PCR products sequenced. The nucleotide sequences obtained were verified using BLAST and they were subsequently analyzed using the Molecular Evolutionary Genetic Analysis (MEGA 7.0). Wenyonia sp are abundant in Synodontis clarias with W. virilis the most prevalent and W. minuta the least prevalent. The phylogenetic tree based on the D1-D3 region of the partial 28SrRNA gene nucleotide sequence revealed three main clusters that indicated that W. minuta and W. youdeoweii are more genetically related than W. virilis. W. longicauda, however, showed more intermediate relatedness between and among the 5 Wenyonia species used in the tree. W. acuminuta showed the least genetically relatedness among the 5 Wenyonia species. Based on the partial mt region comprising trnK+ nad3+ trnS+ trnW+ cox1, W. acuminuta showed more genetic relatedness with W. longicauda than with W. youdeoweii. Conclusion: The study therefore revealed that Wenyonia sp are abundant in Synodontis clarias and that the species are genetically closely related as revealed by the taxonomical classification. However, some individual among these species may have been evolving.