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Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato

Haemogregarines are blood parasites with a life-cycle involving a vertebrate as the intermediate host and an invertebrate as the definitive host and vector. Extensive phylogenetic investigations based on 18S-rRNA gene sequences have shown that Haemogregarina stepanowi (Apicomplexa: Haemogregarinidae...

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Autores principales: Verneau, Olivier, Melliti, Sirine, Kimdil, Latifa, El Mouden, El Hassan, Achouri, Mohamed Sghaier, Rouag, Rachid
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10302864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37375085
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061584
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author Verneau, Olivier
Melliti, Sirine
Kimdil, Latifa
El Mouden, El Hassan
Achouri, Mohamed Sghaier
Rouag, Rachid
author_facet Verneau, Olivier
Melliti, Sirine
Kimdil, Latifa
El Mouden, El Hassan
Achouri, Mohamed Sghaier
Rouag, Rachid
author_sort Verneau, Olivier
collection PubMed
description Haemogregarines are blood parasites with a life-cycle involving a vertebrate as the intermediate host and an invertebrate as the definitive host and vector. Extensive phylogenetic investigations based on 18S-rRNA gene sequences have shown that Haemogregarina stepanowi (Apicomplexa: Haemogregarinidae) is able to infest a large diversity of freshwater turtle species, including the European pond turtle Emys orbicularis, the Sicilian pond turtle Emys trinacris, the Caspian turtle Mauremys caspica, the Mediterranean pond turtle Mauremys leprosa, and the Western Caspian turtle Mauremys rivulata, among others. From the same molecular markers, H. stepanowi is further considered to be a complex of cryptic species predisposed to infect the same host species. While Placobdella costata is known to be the unique vector of H. stepanowi, it is only recently that independent lineages within P. costata have been illustrated—suggesting the presence of at least five unique leech species across Western Europe. The aims of our study were therefore to investigate from mitochondrial markers (COI) the genetic diversity within haemogregarines and leeches infecting freshwater turtles of the Maghreb, in order to identify processes of parasite speciation. We showed that H. stepanowi consists of at least five cryptic species in the Maghreb, while two Placobella species were identified in the same area. Although an Eastern–Western speciation pattern was apparent for both leeches and haemogregarines, we cannot make definitive conclusions regarding co-speciation patterns between parasites and vectors. However, we cannot reject the hypothesis of a very strict host–parasite specificity within leeches.
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spelling pubmed-103028642023-06-29 Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato Verneau, Olivier Melliti, Sirine Kimdil, Latifa El Mouden, El Hassan Achouri, Mohamed Sghaier Rouag, Rachid Microorganisms Article Haemogregarines are blood parasites with a life-cycle involving a vertebrate as the intermediate host and an invertebrate as the definitive host and vector. Extensive phylogenetic investigations based on 18S-rRNA gene sequences have shown that Haemogregarina stepanowi (Apicomplexa: Haemogregarinidae) is able to infest a large diversity of freshwater turtle species, including the European pond turtle Emys orbicularis, the Sicilian pond turtle Emys trinacris, the Caspian turtle Mauremys caspica, the Mediterranean pond turtle Mauremys leprosa, and the Western Caspian turtle Mauremys rivulata, among others. From the same molecular markers, H. stepanowi is further considered to be a complex of cryptic species predisposed to infect the same host species. While Placobdella costata is known to be the unique vector of H. stepanowi, it is only recently that independent lineages within P. costata have been illustrated—suggesting the presence of at least five unique leech species across Western Europe. The aims of our study were therefore to investigate from mitochondrial markers (COI) the genetic diversity within haemogregarines and leeches infecting freshwater turtles of the Maghreb, in order to identify processes of parasite speciation. We showed that H. stepanowi consists of at least five cryptic species in the Maghreb, while two Placobella species were identified in the same area. Although an Eastern–Western speciation pattern was apparent for both leeches and haemogregarines, we cannot make definitive conclusions regarding co-speciation patterns between parasites and vectors. However, we cannot reject the hypothesis of a very strict host–parasite specificity within leeches. MDPI 2023-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC10302864/ /pubmed/37375085 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061584 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Verneau, Olivier
Melliti, Sirine
Kimdil, Latifa
El Mouden, El Hassan
Achouri, Mohamed Sghaier
Rouag, Rachid
Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato
title Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato
title_full Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato
title_fullStr Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato
title_full_unstemmed Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato
title_short Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Placobdella costata Sensu Lato and Haemogregarina stepanowi Sensu Lato
title_sort molecular phylogenies of leeches and haemoparasites infecting freshwater turtles in aquatic ecosystems of northern africa suggest phylogenetic congruence between placobdella costata sensu lato and haemogregarina stepanowi sensu lato
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10302864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37375085
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061584
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