Genetic relationship between Neobenedenia girellae and N. melleni inferred from 28S rRNA sequences

The fragments of 350 bp in 28S rRNA from the closely related monogenea of trematoda,Neobenedenia girellae and N.melleni are obtained by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified using a couple of special primers and then sequenced.The results show that the comparison of 28S rRNA sequences,with only a base varying in 337bp accounting for 0.3% genetic difference,from the relative species N.girellae and N.melleni parasitized on the different fishes in different farms displays that they possess a very high genetic similarity of 99.7%,higher than that of 99.41% for the single species N.melleni sampled in different areas,and the intraspecific divergence of N.melleni is 0.59%.Meanwhile,the interspecific differences between the two Neobenedenia and three Benedenia (i.e.,B.lutjani,B.rohdei and B.seriolae) range from 2.08% to11.73%.In addition,UPGMA and MP molecular phylogenetic trees are constructed and proved to be consistent with each other.Though the morphological characteristics and the results of genetic diversity for the two Neobenedenia show a high similarity,whether they belong to a single species or not are still undefined,and the more genes of them should be further investigated,in combination with the systematical and detailed morphological study.