Molecular identification of Thelandros scleratus and Thelastoma icemi (Nematoda: Oxyruida) using mitochondrial cox 1 sequences.

Two species of parasitic nematodes collected from the intestine of Brook's House Gecko, Hemidactylus brooki and American cockroach, Periplaneta americana L. The parasites were identified as Thelandros scleratus and Thelastoma icemi by PCR amplification method. Subsequently, sequence analysis of mt cox1 (504 and 540 bp) for T. scleratus and T. icemi respectively revealed that these sequences showed maximum similarity of 90% (in case of T. scleratus), 77% (in case of T. icemi), to nematode sequences available on GenBank. To our knowledge, no cox1 sequence is available for both the species of family Pharyngodonidae and Thelastomatidae. This study represents the first mitochondrial DNA characterization of both species.