The most epidemiologically significant tick species in Siberia involved in transmission of a large number of pathogens causing human infectious diseases is Ixodes persulcatus. Ixodes pavlovskyi, being more active, also poses epidemiological threats. These tick species share morphology, activity seasons and geographic distribution range. In this paper, we characterize the geographic and genetic structures of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi populations inhabiting the southern part of Western Siberia (Russia and Kazakhstan)--the western part of I. pavlovskyi distribution range. The data are based on six distinct Ixodes tick populations. Analysis of the concatenated mitochondrial marker sequences (16S rRNA and COI) and the nuclear sequence (ITS2) showed genetic polymorphisms in both I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks inhabiting the sympatric zone. We could not determine the phylogeographic structure of I. pavlovskyi populations whereas for I. persulcatus significant within-region variance was shown. Notably, the abundance of I. persulcatus ticks negatively correlates with nucleotide and haplotype diversity in the concatenated sequence of mitochondrial gene (16S rRNA and COI) fragments. This is the first description of the genetic polymorphism of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks coexisting in a sympatric zone based on analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear markers.
Keywords: 16S rRNA; COI; Geographical distribution; ITS2; Ixodes pavlovskyi; Ixodes persulcatus.