Molecular Identification of Haemadipsa rjukjuana (Hirudiniformes: Haemadipsidae) in Gageo Island, Korea

Abstract

There are 60 species of blood-feeding land leeches, 50 species belonging to the family Haemadipsidae and 10 species belonging to the family Xerobdellidae. Despite recent papers on the land leeches, their taxonomic identification is not fully understood, especially at a species level. In Korea, there have been no historical records of the terrestrial leeches, but recently an unrecorded blood-feeding land leech was discovered at Gageo-do (Island), Korea. Molecular analysis was used to identify the species of 29 leeches collected from Mt. Dock-Sil in Gageo-do. Conventional PCR was conducted using nuclear 18S rRNA and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) genetic marker. The 18S rRNA sequences revealed that the leeches share 99.9% identity with Haemadipsa rjukjuana (inhabiting Taiwan), and the CO1 sequences revealed that the leeches are very close to H. rjukjuana (inhabiting Taiwan). The CO1 sequences were separated into 2 categories, 1 with 94.6% and the other with 94.3% similarity to the H. rjukjuana L00115A (inhabiting Taiwan). This new finding of the land leech is the first record in Korea. In addition, the north range of the distribution of the blood-feeding leech (Hirudiniformes: Haemadipisidae) should be reconsidered including Korea.

Nuclear microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA analyses reveal the regional genetic structure and phylogeographical history of a sanguivorous land leech, Haemadipsa japonica, in Japan

“…ornata is distributed in Sumatra and northeastern India (Bandyopadhyay & Mandal, ; Borda & Siddall, ); H . rjukjuana is distributed in the Indochinese Peninsula, Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, Gageodo Island of Korea, and Ryukyu Islands of Japan (Lai et al, ; Won et al, ); and H . montana is distributed in south and northeastern India (Bandyopadhyay & Mandal, ; Borda & Siddall, ).…”

“…The family Haemadipsidae, whose members are known for their blood‐feeding habits, comprises <70 species and is highly diverse, especially in tropical regions with high humidity in Indo‐Pacific rainforests (Borda & Siddall, ). The genus Haemadipsa , a member of Haemadipsidae, is very abundant in Southeast Asia (Won et al, ). Haemadipsa japonica Whitman (Haemadipsidae) is endemic to Japan (Figures and ); it is distributed in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu (Aizawa & Morishima, ; Borda & Siddall, ; Whitman, ).…”

Bloodlines: mammals, leeches, and conservation in southern Asia

“…Our leech cox1 sequences were combined with cox1 data from prior phylogenetic studies of Haemadipsidae and GenBank (Borda et al, 2008;Borda & Siddall, 2010;Lai et al, 2011;Tessler et al, 2016;Won et al, 2014). Fully redundant sequences were then removed using the 'fastx_collapser' tool from the FASTX-Toolkit (http://hannonlab.cshl.edu/fastx_toolkit), as they can have negative impacts on the topological stability of maximum likelihood reconstructions and ultimately do not provide any additional information.…”

Development of a Novel Wound Dressing Coated with Drug-loaded Mesenchymal StemCells to Promote Wound Healing in Diabetics

“…It is aged for 20 months from natural garlic in order to reduce its harsh, irritating taste and smell. Nevertheless, this AGExt has a higher concentration of sulphur-containing compounds such as alliin and S-allyl cysteine (SAC) that is a potent antioxidant and free radical scavenger [10]. Recent studies in the author's laboratory have shown that AGExt is an effective inhibitor of AGEs in vitro.…”