Morphological confirmation and preliminary molecular data on Tetraserialis tscherbakovi from Microtus mystacinus in Türkiye

Year 2026, Accepted Papers, 1 - 7

Öykü Barılı , Şinasi Umur

https://doi.org/10.33988/auvfd.1703476

Abstract

Tetraserialis tscherbakovi (Petrov and Chertkova, 1960) is a rare monostomic trematode belonging to the family Notocotylidae. This study aimed to provide detailed information on Tetraserialis tscherbakovi. In this study, the digestive systems of 25 rodents captured in the Sarıkamış district of Kars Province were examined, and 19 trematodes morphologically consistent with Tetraserialis tscherbakovi were detected in a single Microtus mystacinus individual. Light microscopy images of the parasites were obtained, along with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, which are presented for the first time worldwide. SEM examination revealed, in detail, a previously undescribed cap-like helical structure of the eggs. The sequencing of the ITS1, 5.8S rRNA, and ITS2 gene regions was conducted; the obtained isolate was deposited in GenBank (PP812223). BLAST analysis showed the highest similarity to Notocotylus malhamensis (97.54%) and Notocotylus sp. (96.89%). Since these values are below the generally accepted threshold for definitive species-level molecular identification, the molecular data were considered preliminary and supported by morphological findings. Since the analysis was based only on the ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 region and showed similarity values slightly below the accepted species-level threshold, the molecular results should be interpreted with caution until additional markers (e.g., COI, 28S) are studied. This study reports the first morphologically identified case of Tetraserialis tscherbakovi from M. mystacinus in Türkiye and provides preliminary data on the phylogenetic position of the species.

Keywords

Microtus mystacinus , Notocotylidae , Tetraserialis tscherbakovi , trematoda , Turkiye

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