Molecular phylogeny of Scorpion Hemiscorpius lepturus based on Sequences Ribosomal DNA in the Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS2) in Khuzestan province

Scorpion sting is one of the serious problems for public health especially in Khuzestan province. The genus Hemiscorpius scorpions are a major factor to scorpion sting and its related death particularly in children. Eleven specimens of Hemiscorpius lepturus scorpion were collected from 6 regions of Khuzestan province and after identification, genomic DNA extraction was performed by manual method of phenol / chloroform. The Internal transcribed spacers (ITS2) genes with about 350 nucleotides was amplified by PCR and then sequenced using forward and reverse primers. The nucleotide sequence was compared using the nBLAST program available at NCBI Web site GenBank database. The results of the phylogenetic showed that the samples can be identified in two clusters A and B, with 85% correlation. Cluster A is subdivided into three subclusters A1 (including: H8, H9, H11M, H5, H44, H2 and H10), A2 (H22 and H4), and A3 (H10M). The specimens in these subclusters, showed a correlation between 54-85%. The studied sequences showed similarity (81.7-98.6%) with the only Hemiscorpius lepturus scorpion sequence (KU341981) recorded at the GenBank database beside a number of scorpions of the Hemiscorpionidae family. The only H9M scorpion specimen in cluster B with a relatively high genetic distance (11.7–19.1%) was discriminated from the rest of the specimens, indicating that this specimen probably belongs to a subspecies different from the Hemiscorpius lepturus scorpion of Khuzestan province.