Molecular phylogeny and identification of the Egyptian wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) based on COI mitochondrial gene sequences

Abstract The Hymenoptera is one of the vital and biggest insect orders comprising the bees, wasps, sawflies, and ants. Wasps are important to natural and biological pest control because they are predators or parasitoids of pest arthropods. This study investigated the genetic diversity among the three wasps, Vespa orientalis Linnaeus, Polistes bucharensis Erichson, and Polistes mongolicus du Buysson, collected from three different governorates in Egypt, using cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) DNA barcoding. PCR was performed to amplify COI fragment. The amplified COI regions (710 bp) were sequenced and analyzed. All novel nucleotide sequences of COI gene were deposited into the GenBank database. The genetic distances were estimated using Kimura two-parameter model. In spite of the wide geographical range, minor genetic diversity was observed between some populations of the three wasp species, revealing unrestricted gene flow between them. Phylogenetic relationship analysis was performed, using maximum likelihood (ML) method. The results of the phylogenetic analyses recovered P. bucharensis more closely related to P. dominula and P. gallicus. P. mongolicus collected from Menofia Governorate formed a distinct branch with 99% support. V. orientalis was sister to the yellowjacket Dolichovespula adulterine, with 84% support. It can be concluded that DNA barcode is a powerful tool for rapid and accurate identification of Egyptian wasp species

Candidate Multi-Epitope Vaccine against Corona B.1.617 Lineage: In Silico Approach

Various mutations have accumulated since the first genome sequence of SARS-CoV2 in 2020. Mutants of the virus carrying the D614G and P681R mutations in the spike protein are increasingly becoming dominant all over the world. The two mutations increase the viral infectivity and severity of the disease. This report describes an in silico design of SARS-CoV-2 multi-epitope carrying the spike D614G and P681R mutations. The designed vaccine harbors the D614G mutation that increases viral infectivity, fitness, and the P681R mutation that enhances the cleavage of S to S1 and S2 subunits. The designed multi-epitope vaccine showed an antigenic property with a value of 0.67 and the immunogenicity of the predicted vaccine was calculated and yielded 3.4. The vaccine construct is predicted to be non-allergenic, thermostable and has hydrophilic nature. The combination of the selected CTL and HTL epitopes in the vaccine resulted in 96.85% population coverage globally. Stable interactions of the vaccine with Toll-Like Receptor 4 were tested by docking studies. The multi-epitope vaccine can be a good candidate against highly infecting SARS-CoV-2 variants