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Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests

Avian malaria and related haemosporidian parasites (genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon) affect bird demography, species range limits, and community structure, yet they remain unsurveyed in most bird communities and populations. We conducted a community-level survey of these vector-tr...

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Autores principales: Marroquin-Flores, Rosario A., Williamson, Jessie L., Chavez, Andrea N., Bauernfeind, Selina M., Baumann, Matthew J., Gadek, Chauncey R., Johnson, Andrew B., McCullough, Jenna M., Witt, Christopher C., Barrow, Lisa N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5563434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28828279
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3700
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author Marroquin-Flores, Rosario A.
Williamson, Jessie L.
Chavez, Andrea N.
Bauernfeind, Selina M.
Baumann, Matthew J.
Gadek, Chauncey R.
Johnson, Andrew B.
McCullough, Jenna M.
Witt, Christopher C.
Barrow, Lisa N.
author_facet Marroquin-Flores, Rosario A.
Williamson, Jessie L.
Chavez, Andrea N.
Bauernfeind, Selina M.
Baumann, Matthew J.
Gadek, Chauncey R.
Johnson, Andrew B.
McCullough, Jenna M.
Witt, Christopher C.
Barrow, Lisa N.
author_sort Marroquin-Flores, Rosario A.
collection PubMed
description Avian malaria and related haemosporidian parasites (genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon) affect bird demography, species range limits, and community structure, yet they remain unsurveyed in most bird communities and populations. We conducted a community-level survey of these vector-transmitted parasites in New Mexico, USA, to describe their diversity, abundance, and host associations. We focused on the breeding-bird community in the transition zone between piñon-juniper woodland and ponderosa pine forests (elevational range: 2,150–2,460 m). We screened 186 birds representing 49 species using both standard PCR and microscopy techniques to detect infections of all three avian haemosporidian genera. We detected infections in 68 out of 186 birds (36.6%), the highest proportion of which were infected with Haemoproteus (20.9%), followed by Leucocytozoon (13.4%), then Plasmodium (8.0%). We sequenced mtDNA for 77 infections representing 43 haplotypes (25 Haemoproteus, 12 Leucocytozoon, 6 Plasmodium). When compared to all previously known haplotypes in the MalAvi and GenBank databases, 63% (27) of the haplotypes we recovered were novel. We found evidence for host specificity at the avian clade and species level, but this specificity was variable among parasite genera, in that Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon were each restricted to three avian groups (out of six), while Plasmodium occurred in all groups except non-passerines. We found striking variation in infection rate among host species, with nearly universal infection among vireos and no infection among nuthatches. Using rarefaction and extrapolation, we estimated the total avian haemosporidian diversity to be 70 haplotypes (95% CI [43–98]); thus, we may have already sampled ∼60% of the diversity of avian haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests. It is possible that future studies will find higher diversity in microhabitats or host species that are under-sampled or unsampled in the present study. Fortunately, this study is fully extendable via voucher specimens, frozen tissues, blood smears, parasite images, and documentation provided in open-access databases (MalAvi, GenBank, and ARCTOS).
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spelling pubmed-55634342017-08-21 Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests Marroquin-Flores, Rosario A. Williamson, Jessie L. Chavez, Andrea N. Bauernfeind, Selina M. Baumann, Matthew J. Gadek, Chauncey R. Johnson, Andrew B. McCullough, Jenna M. Witt, Christopher C. Barrow, Lisa N. PeerJ Biodiversity Avian malaria and related haemosporidian parasites (genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon) affect bird demography, species range limits, and community structure, yet they remain unsurveyed in most bird communities and populations. We conducted a community-level survey of these vector-transmitted parasites in New Mexico, USA, to describe their diversity, abundance, and host associations. We focused on the breeding-bird community in the transition zone between piñon-juniper woodland and ponderosa pine forests (elevational range: 2,150–2,460 m). We screened 186 birds representing 49 species using both standard PCR and microscopy techniques to detect infections of all three avian haemosporidian genera. We detected infections in 68 out of 186 birds (36.6%), the highest proportion of which were infected with Haemoproteus (20.9%), followed by Leucocytozoon (13.4%), then Plasmodium (8.0%). We sequenced mtDNA for 77 infections representing 43 haplotypes (25 Haemoproteus, 12 Leucocytozoon, 6 Plasmodium). When compared to all previously known haplotypes in the MalAvi and GenBank databases, 63% (27) of the haplotypes we recovered were novel. We found evidence for host specificity at the avian clade and species level, but this specificity was variable among parasite genera, in that Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon were each restricted to three avian groups (out of six), while Plasmodium occurred in all groups except non-passerines. We found striking variation in infection rate among host species, with nearly universal infection among vireos and no infection among nuthatches. Using rarefaction and extrapolation, we estimated the total avian haemosporidian diversity to be 70 haplotypes (95% CI [43–98]); thus, we may have already sampled ∼60% of the diversity of avian haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests. It is possible that future studies will find higher diversity in microhabitats or host species that are under-sampled or unsampled in the present study. Fortunately, this study is fully extendable via voucher specimens, frozen tissues, blood smears, parasite images, and documentation provided in open-access databases (MalAvi, GenBank, and ARCTOS). PeerJ Inc. 2017-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5563434/ /pubmed/28828279 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3700 Text en ©2017 Marroquin-Flores et al. 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, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Marroquin-Flores, Rosario A.
Williamson, Jessie L.
Chavez, Andrea N.
Bauernfeind, Selina M.
Baumann, Matthew J.
Gadek, Chauncey R.
Johnson, Andrew B.
McCullough, Jenna M.
Witt, Christopher C.
Barrow, Lisa N.
Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests
title Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests
title_full Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests
title_fullStr Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests
title_full_unstemmed Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests
title_short Diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in New Mexico pine forests
title_sort diversity, abundance, and host relationships of avian malaria and related haemosporidians in new mexico pine forests
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5563434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28828279
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3700
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