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Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that haemosporidian parasites (Haemoproteus (Parahaemoproteus) and Plasmodium) infecting passerine birds have an evolutionary history of host switching with little cospeciation, in particular at low taxonomic levels (e.g., below the family level), which is sug...

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Autores principales: Santiago-Alarcon, Diego, Rodríguez-Ferraro, Adriana, Parker, Patricia G, Ricklefs, Robert E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4077843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24957563
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-7-286
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author Santiago-Alarcon, Diego
Rodríguez-Ferraro, Adriana
Parker, Patricia G
Ricklefs, Robert E
author_facet Santiago-Alarcon, Diego
Rodríguez-Ferraro, Adriana
Parker, Patricia G
Ricklefs, Robert E
author_sort Santiago-Alarcon, Diego
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that haemosporidian parasites (Haemoproteus (Parahaemoproteus) and Plasmodium) infecting passerine birds have an evolutionary history of host switching with little cospeciation, in particular at low taxonomic levels (e.g., below the family level), which is suggested as the main speciation mechanism of this group of parasites. Recent studies have characterized diverse clades of haemosporidian parasites (H. (Haemoproteus) and H. (Parahaemoproteus)) infecting non-passerine birds (e.g., Columbiformes, Pelecaniiformes). Here, we explore the cospeciation history of H. (Haemoproteus) and H. (Parahaemoproteus) parasites with their non-passerine hosts. METHODS: We sequenced the mtDNA cyt b gene of both haemosporidian parasites and their avian non-passerine hosts. We built Bayesian phylogenetic hypotheses and created concensus phylograms that were subsequently used to conduct cospeciation analyses. We used both a global cospeciation test, PACo, and an event-cost algorithm implemented in CoRe-PA. RESULTS: The global test suggests that H. (Haemoproteus) and H. (Parahaemoproteus) parasites have a diversification history dominated by cospeciation events particularly at the family level. Host-parasite links from the PACo analysis show that host switching events are common within families (i.e., among genera and among species within genera), and occasionally across different orders (e.g., Columbiformes to Pelecaniiformes). Event-cost analyses show that haemosporidian coevolutionary history is dominated by host switching and some codivergence, but with duplication events also present. Genetic lineages unique to raptor species (e.g., FALC11) commonly switch between Falconiformes and Strigiformes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results corroborate previous findings that have detected a global cospeciation signal at the family taxonomic level, and they also support a history of frequent switching closer to the tips of the host phylogeny, which seems to be the main diversification mechanism of haemosporidians. Such dynamic host-parasite associations are relevant to the epidemiology of emerging diseases because low parasite host specificity is a prerequisite for the emergence of novel diseases. The evidence on host distributions suggests that haemosporidian parasites have the potential to rapidly develop novel host-associations. This pattern has also been recorded in fish-monogenean interactions, suggesting a general diversification mechanism for parasites when host choice is not restricted by ecological barriers.
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spelling pubmed-40778432014-07-02 Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds Santiago-Alarcon, Diego Rodríguez-Ferraro, Adriana Parker, Patricia G Ricklefs, Robert E Parasit Vectors Research BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that haemosporidian parasites (Haemoproteus (Parahaemoproteus) and Plasmodium) infecting passerine birds have an evolutionary history of host switching with little cospeciation, in particular at low taxonomic levels (e.g., below the family level), which is suggested as the main speciation mechanism of this group of parasites. Recent studies have characterized diverse clades of haemosporidian parasites (H. (Haemoproteus) and H. (Parahaemoproteus)) infecting non-passerine birds (e.g., Columbiformes, Pelecaniiformes). Here, we explore the cospeciation history of H. (Haemoproteus) and H. (Parahaemoproteus) parasites with their non-passerine hosts. METHODS: We sequenced the mtDNA cyt b gene of both haemosporidian parasites and their avian non-passerine hosts. We built Bayesian phylogenetic hypotheses and created concensus phylograms that were subsequently used to conduct cospeciation analyses. We used both a global cospeciation test, PACo, and an event-cost algorithm implemented in CoRe-PA. RESULTS: The global test suggests that H. (Haemoproteus) and H. (Parahaemoproteus) parasites have a diversification history dominated by cospeciation events particularly at the family level. Host-parasite links from the PACo analysis show that host switching events are common within families (i.e., among genera and among species within genera), and occasionally across different orders (e.g., Columbiformes to Pelecaniiformes). Event-cost analyses show that haemosporidian coevolutionary history is dominated by host switching and some codivergence, but with duplication events also present. Genetic lineages unique to raptor species (e.g., FALC11) commonly switch between Falconiformes and Strigiformes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results corroborate previous findings that have detected a global cospeciation signal at the family taxonomic level, and they also support a history of frequent switching closer to the tips of the host phylogeny, which seems to be the main diversification mechanism of haemosporidians. Such dynamic host-parasite associations are relevant to the epidemiology of emerging diseases because low parasite host specificity is a prerequisite for the emergence of novel diseases. The evidence on host distributions suggests that haemosporidian parasites have the potential to rapidly develop novel host-associations. This pattern has also been recorded in fish-monogenean interactions, suggesting a general diversification mechanism for parasites when host choice is not restricted by ecological barriers. BioMed Central 2014-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4077843/ /pubmed/24957563 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-7-286 Text en Copyright © 2014 Santiago-Alarcon et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Santiago-Alarcon, Diego
Rodríguez-Ferraro, Adriana
Parker, Patricia G
Ricklefs, Robert E
Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds
title Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds
title_full Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds
title_fullStr Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds
title_full_unstemmed Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds
title_short Different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds
title_sort different meal, same flavor: cospeciation and host switching of haemosporidian parasites in some non-passerine birds
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4077843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24957563
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-7-286
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