2 research outputs found
Molecular Identification of Similar Species of the Genus Biomphalaria (Mollusca: Planorbidae) Determined by a Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism
The freshwater snails Biomphalaria straminea, B. intermedia, B.
kuhniana and B. peregrina, are morphologically similar; based on this
similarity the first three species were therefore grouped in the
complex B. straminea. The morphological identification of these species
is based on characters such as vaginal wrinkling, relation between
prepuce: penial sheath:deferens vas and number of muscle layers in the
penis wall. In this study the polymerase chain reaction restriction
fragment length polymorphism technique was used for molecular
identification of these molluscs. This technique is based on the
amplification of the internal transcribed spacer regions ITS1 e ITS2 of
the ribosomal RNA gene and subsequent digestion of these fragments by
restriction enzymes. Six enzymes were tested: Dde I, Mnl I, Hae III,
Rsa I, Hpa II e Alu I. The restriction patterns obtained with DdeI
presented the best profile for separation of the four species of
Biomphalaria. The profiles obtained with all the enzymes were used to
estimate the genetic distances among the species through analysis of
common banding patterns