The genetic and morphological diversity of Haemogregarina infecting turtles in Colombia: Are mitochondrial markers useful as barcodes for these parasites?
Infect Genet Evol
; 95: 105040, 2021 11.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34403833
Adeleorinid parasites commonly infect turtles and tortoises in nature. Currently, our knowledge about such parasites is extremely poor. Their characterization is based on morphological and molecular approaches using the 18S rDNA molecular marker. However, there is a limitation with the 18S rDNA due to its slow rate of evolution. For that reason, the goals of this study were to 1) design primers for new molecular mitochondrial markers to improve the phylogenetic reconstructions of adeleorinid parasites and 2) to determine the morphological and genetic diversity of Haemogregarina infecting turtles and tortoises in Colombia. Turtles from 16 species representing six families were examined for the presence of haemoparasites. We analyzed 457 samples using PCR, and 203 of them were also analyzed by microscopy. Using a mitochondrial genome of Haemogregarina sequenced in this study, we designed primers to amplify fragments of the cytochrome oxidase I (coxI), cytochrome oxidase III (coxIII), and cytochrome b (cytb) mitochondrial markers in adeleorinid parasites. Lineages obtained from nuclear and mitochondrial molecular markers clustered according to the turtle lineages from which they were isolated. It is noteworthy that we found different evolutionary lineages within the same morphotype, which may indicate heteroplasmy and/or cryptic diversity in Haemogregarina. Due to this situation, we could not make a species delimitation, even when integrating the different lines of evidence we had in this study. However, the primers presented here are useful for diagnosis and, moreover, according to the available information, all three genes retain phylogenetic signals; thereby fragments amplified can be used in reconstructing evolutionary relationships. This effort contributes to the knowledge of the diversity of these parasites infecting continental turtles from Colombia.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Tartarugas
/
Eucoccidiida
/
Coccidiose
/
Genoma Mitocondrial
/
Código de Barras de DNA Taxonômico
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
País/Região como assunto:
America do sul
/
Colombia
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Infect Genet Evol
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
DOENCAS TRANSMISSIVEIS
/
GENETICA
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de publicação:
Holanda