Outlaw Diana C, Ricklefs Robert E
Department of Biological Sciences,Mississippi State University,Mississippi State, MS 39759,USA.
Department of Biology,University of Missouri-St. Louis,One University Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63121,USA.
Parasitology. 2014 Sep;141(10):1223-32. doi: 10.1017/S0031182014000560. Epub 2014 May 9.
Delimiting species of malaria parasites (Haemosporida) has become increasingly problematic as new lineages of parasites are identified solely by molecular information, particularly mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence data. In this review, we highlight some of the issues, both historical and contemporary, that have hindered the development of objective criteria to diagnose, delimit and define species of haemosporidians. Defining species is not the focal interest of most researchers, most of whom merely wish to determine whether lineages identified in their samples match those of other researchers, and if so, where and in which host species. Rather than revisiting all the issues with respect to delimiting and naming species, we instead focus on finding a practical near-term resolution to the 'species problem' that utilizes the community's largest resource: mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA sequences. We recommend a standardized procedure to 'tag' these sequences, based on per cent sequence similarity, that will allow researchers to directly assess the novelty, known hosts and geographic distribution of avian malaria parasite lineages.
随着仅通过分子信息，特别是线粒体细胞色素b序列数据来识别新的疟原虫谱系，界定疟原虫（血孢子虫）的物种变得越来越成问题。在这篇综述中，我们强调了一些历史和当代的问题，这些问题阻碍了制定客观标准来诊断、界定和定义血孢子虫物种。定义物种并非大多数研究人员的核心兴趣，他们中的大多数人只想确定其样本中识别出的谱系是否与其他研究人员的谱系匹配，如果匹配，在何处以及在哪些宿主物种中。我们并非重新审视与界定和命名物种相关的所有问题，而是专注于找到一个切实可行的近期解决方案来解决“物种问题”，该方案利用科学界最大的资源：线粒体细胞色素b DNA序列。我们建议基于序列相似百分比对这些序列进行“标记”的标准化程序，这将使研究人员能够直接评估禽疟原虫谱系的新颖性、已知宿主和地理分布。
