Analysis of COI and ITS2 regions of DNA obtained from Paragonimus westermani eggs in ancient coprolites on Joseon dynasty mummies

Abstract

The genetic information of ancient Paragonimus westermani , the oriental lung fluke infecting over 20 million people worldwide, has not been thoroughly investigated thus far. We analysed genetic markers (COI and ITS2) of P. westermani from coprolite specimens (n = 6) obtained from 15th to 18th century Korean mummies. Our results indicated that all P. westermani sequences were generally distinct from the other species of the genus Paragonimus . The sequences were clustered into three groups: Group I for East Asia; Group II for South and Southeast Asia; and Group III for India and Sri Lanka. In this study, we found that ancient P. westermani sequences in Korea belong to Group I, adding invaluable information to the existing knowledge of Paragonimus paleogenetics.

Archaeoparasitology of Korean Mummies

“…found in archaeological specimens, very few reports on the relevant paleogenetics have been made thus far. In studies on Paragonimus eggs microscopically detected in the coprolites of the fifteenth to eighteenth century Korean mummies (Seo et al 2014a(Seo et al , 2017, multiple genetic markers (CO1 and ITS2) were tested for comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary history of P. westermani (Hong et al 2019b). By NCBI/BLAST analysis, the sequences from Joseon mummies were very similar to P. westermani CO1 or ITS2 regions already reported.…”

“…Of the genus Paragonimus, the most commonly reported species is P. westermani, which is prevalent in Taiwan, Korea, China, Japan, and the Philippines (Blair et al 2016). Scholars conjecture that this species currently infects over 20 million people in the world (Blair et al 2016;Hong et al 2019b).…”

“…; and even the P. westermani sequences were distinctly clustered into several groups. In the case of CO1, P. westermani sequences were clustered into South and Southeast Asia (India, Philippines and Thailand), East Asia (Korea, Japan, and China), and a third group (India and Sri Lanka) (Hong et al 2019b). P. westermani ITS2 sequences reportedly also have been separately clustered into Southeast Asia (Thailand), South Asia (India) and East Asia (Korea, Japan and China) groups, except for some P. westermani ITS2 sequences from South and Southeast Asia being clustered together with the East Asia group.…”

Joseon Dynasty Mummies of Korea

“…In case of Korean mummies, aDNA analyses were performed with mummified specimens obtained during autopsy or endoscopy. Such aDNA analyses were focused on ancient pathogens like ancient hepatitis B virus (aHBV) (Kahila Bar-Gal et al 2012), Helicobacter pylori (Shin et al 2018b), Ascaris lumbricoides (Hong et al 2017), Clonorchis sinensis (Hong et al 2019a), Paragonimus westermani (Hong et al 2019b), and Trichuris trichiura (Hong et al 2019c). The pathogen aDNAs were sequenced and analyzed to deduce phylogenetic data in spatiotemporal manner.…”

Characterization and taxonomic utility of ITS2 in Dolerus Panzer, 1801 (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae)

“…Analyzing DNA (or RNA) sequences is an important method for phylogenetic and taxonomic studies of protistan, plant and animal species (Young & Coleman, 2004;Salvi & Mariottini, 2012;Hong et al, 2019). Given its rapid evolution, ITS2 region is used to phylogenetic analyses of closely related species (Zhao et al, 2018;Verma & Mishra, 2020).…”