Intraspecies molecular DNA polymorphism and threat of Hirudo orientalis

Medical leeches play the role of a natural factory for the production of a complex of unique biologically active substances such as hirudin, eglins, bdellins, hementin, bradykinins, which are urgently needed by modern medicine and veterinary medicine. Medical leeches produce a wide range of enzymes such as hyalinodase, destabilase, collagenase, apyrase, elastase and triglyceride. All these substances are biologically active substances of natural origin. It is used to treat a wide range of diseases, such as amenorrhea, osteoarthritis, trauma, and blood stasis syndrome. In modern times, leeches also serve as an important model system for understanding the structure, function, development, regeneration, and repair of the nervous system. The currently seven known species of the Hirudo Linnaeus, 1758 genus of the Hirudinidae family are widespread in different regions of the Eurasian contingent. The results of the phylogenetic analysis based on the nucleotide sequences of the oxidase enzyme subunit I (12S r-RNA, COI) allow us to assume that the Hirudo genus is monophyletic. In 2005, P. Trontelj and S. Utevsky, while studying the molecular systematics of medical leeches, analyzed 2 samples of medical leeches from Azerbaijan together with others. According to the results of the cluster analysis, two medicinal leech samples of Azerbaijan ( Hirudo sp. AZ1 and Hirudo sp. AZ2) form a separate cluster and are located between H. medicinalis and H. verbana species. As a result of recent phylogenetic studies, it was determined that those two samples are H. orientalis species. The main goal of the conducted research is to study the intraspecies polymorphism of medical leeches collected from different regions of Azerbaijan at the genome level. Isolation of leech chromosomal DNA was performed with the Gene Elute Mammalian Genomic DNA miniprep reagent kit.