Wide geographic distribution of overlooked parasites: Rare Microsporidia in Gammarus balcanicus, a species complex with a high rate of endemism

International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife

卷:14

Thierry Rigaud¹  Karolina Bacela Spychalska²  Rémi A. Wattier³  Adrien Quiles³  Michal Grabowski³ 

[1] Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, University of Lodz, 12/16 Banacha Street, 90-237, Lodz, Poland;

[2] Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Laboratoire Biogéosciences, UMR CNRS 6282, 6 Boulevard Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France;

关键词: Parasite richness;    Host-parasite association;    Amphipoda;    Geographic range;    Host range;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Parasites and other symbionts deeply influence host organisms, and no living organism can be considered to have evolved independent of its symbionts. The first step towards understanding symbiotic influences upon host organisms is a strong supporting knowledge of parasite/symbiont diversity. Parasites of freshwater amphipods are diverse, with Microsporidia being a major group. These intracellular parasites impact gammarid fitness in different ways, ranging from reduced fitness to increased fecundity. Many Microsporidia have been recorded using molecular data, with multiple taxa pending formal taxonomic description. While some parasites are common, others are known only through sporadic records of single infections. In this study, we focus on rare/sporadic microsporidian infections within Gammarus balcanicus, a host species complex with a high level of endemism. In addition to enriching our knowledge on Microsporidia parasite diversity in amphipod hosts, we test whether these symbionts are specific to G. balcanicus or if they are the same taxa infecting other gammarid species. Of 2231 hosts from 87 sites, we catalogued 29 sequences of “rare” Microsporidia clustering into 19 haplogroups. These haplogroups cluster into 11 lineages: four pre-described taxa (Cucumispora roeselum, C. ornata, C. dikerogammari and Enterocytospora artemiae) and seven ‘Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units’, which are known from previously published studies to infect other European amphipod species. Our study significantly widens the geographic range of these Microsporidia and expands the known spectrum of hosts infected. Our results suggest that these parasites are ancient infections of European gammarids. For some host-parasite systems, we hypothesize that the common parasite ancestors that infected the hosts' common ancestors, diversified alongside host diversification. For others, we observe Microsporidia taxa with wide host ranges that do not follow host phylogeny.

【 授权许可】

Unknown