Preliminary comparative analysis of the resolving power of COX1 and 16S-rDNA as molecular markers for the identification of ticks from Portugal

Abstract

The utility of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COX1) and 16S ribosomal DNA (16S-rDNA) sequence analyses as a complementary/alternative tool to classical taxonomy, for the identification of some of the most prevalent hard tick species from Portugal was evaluated using BOLD-ID (COX1 only), BLASTn and phylogenetic tree reconstruction based on multiple nucleotide sequence alignments. Both molecular markers proved suitable for identifying ticks to a species level, but specific aspects that limit their resolving power must be considered. Their accuracy of tick identification in all life stages and of the other tick species described in the South of Europe is required.

Keywords: DNA barcoding; Hard ticks; Phylogeny; Sequence analysis.