Natural Interactions between S. haematobium and S. guineensis in the Republic of Benin

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease which affects millions of people around the world, particularly in Africa. In this continent, different species are able to interbreed, like Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma guineensis, two schistosome species infecting humans. The Republic of Benin is known to harbor S. haematobium, but its geographical situation in between Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso, where S. guineensis was found, raises the question about the possible presence of S. haematobium/S. guineensis hybrids in this country. We conducted morphological analyses on schistosome eggs and molecular analyses on schistosome larvae (high resolution melting (HRM) analysis and gene sequencing) in order to detect any natural interaction between these two species of schistosomes. The morphological results showed the presence of three egg morphotypes (S. haematobium, S. guineensis, and intermediate). Three genotypes were detected by ITS2 rDNA HRM analysis: S. haematobium, S. guineensis, and hybrid, and their percentages confirmed the results of the morphological analysis. However, sequencing of the CO1 mtDNA gene showed that all the samples from Benin belonged to S. haematobium. Our results provide the first evidence of introgression of S. guineensis genes in S. haematobium in Benin.