Genetic population structure of the Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, in Japan.

The Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann (Ixodida: Ixodidae), is widely distributed across temperate East Asia, including Japan, and carries a variety of zoonotic diseases. The species includes bisexual and parthenogenetic lineages. Various aspects of these two lineages, such as their abundance ratio, genetic relationship, and population structure, remain unknown in island environments such as Japan that are isolated from the mainland.

Sika deer presence affects the host-parasite interface of a Japanese land leech.

Since the 1990s, increasing populations of a blood feeding land leech () have become a serious issue in several Japanese prefectures, and it may be caused by the increases in sika deer () populations seen over the last quarter of the century. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the host animal species of . using iDNA (vertebrate DNA isolated from invertebrates) and to test the hypothesis that the increasingly widespread distribution of sika deer results in increased .

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

Recent molecular studies have indicated that phylogeographical history of Japanese biota is likely shaped by geohistory along with biological events, such as distribution shifts, isolation, and divergence of populations. However, the genetic structure and phylogeographical history of terrestrial Annelida species, including leech species, are poorly understood. Therefore, we aimed to understand the genetic structure and phylogeographical history across the natural range of , a sanguivorous land leech species endemic to Japan, by using nine polymorphic nuclear microsatellites (nSSR) and cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI) sequences of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).

Characterization of 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the Japanese land leech.

We developed 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci of the Japanese land leech (Haemadipsa japonica; Haemadipsidea) using an Illumina MiSeq sequencing approach. A total of 42,064 nuclear DNA contigs were filtered for microsatellite motifs, among which 30,873 simple sequence repeat loci were identified. From these sequences, we selected 30 primer sets, and 13 of these loci were successfully amplified.