Harris David James, Borges-Nojosa Diva Maria, Maia João Pedro
CIBIO Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, No. 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Vila do Conde, Portugal.
J Parasitol. 2015 Feb;101(1):80-5. doi: 10.1645/14-522.1. Epub 2014 Aug 29.
Hepatozoon is a genus of hemogregarines constituting the most widespread and common reptile hemoparasite. Although various molecular assessments of these parasites have been conducted in lizards from Africa and Europe, similar studies are needed for South American lizards. Through amplification and sequencing of fragments of the 18S rRNA gene, we assess the prevalence of Hepatozoon parasites in 230 geckos from South America, including the endemic species Hemidactylus agrius, Hemidactylus brasilianus, Lygodactylus klugei, Phyllopezus pollicaris, Phyllopezus periosus, and an exotic species, Hemidactylus mabouia . We found an overall low prevalence of Hepatozoon infection (7/230, 3%) with only 3 of the 6 host species infected with Hepatozoon ( Hemidactylus mabouia , P. pollicaris, and P. periosus). Within the 7 infected host samples, 5 genetically distinct lineages of Hepatozoon parasites were identified, only 1 of which was similar to previously published haplotypes. Thus, although prevalence is low, genetically based diversity of Hepatozoon in geckos from South America is very high. Three of these lineages appear basal to 1 of the major clades of Hepatozoon, suggesting that this clade might have originated in South America, and thereby indicating a potential phylogeographic pattern that had not been previously identified. Future studies should assess the distribution and competence of invertebrate hosts in the regions analyzed, and Hepatozoon diversity in other less well-known regions of the world.
肝簇虫属血簇虫类，是分布最广且最常见的爬行动物血液寄生虫。尽管已对非洲和欧洲蜥蜴体内的这些寄生虫进行了各种分子评估，但南美洲蜥蜴仍需开展类似研究。通过对18S rRNA基因片段进行扩增和测序，我们评估了南美洲230只壁虎体内肝簇虫寄生虫的感染率，其中包括特有物种阿根廷半叶趾虎、巴西半叶趾虎、克鲁格纤趾虎、多疣叶趾虎、秘鲁叶趾虎，以及外来物种马布亚半叶趾虎。我们发现肝簇虫感染率总体较低（7/230，3%），6种宿主物种中只有3种感染了肝簇虫（马布亚半叶趾虎、多疣叶趾虎和秘鲁叶趾虎）。在7个受感染的宿主样本中，鉴定出了5个遗传上不同的肝簇虫寄生虫谱系，其中只有1个与之前发表的单倍型相似。因此，尽管感染率较低，但南美洲壁虎体内肝簇虫基于遗传的多样性非常高。这些谱系中的3个似乎位于肝簇虫主要进化枝之一的基部，这表明该进化枝可能起源于南美洲，从而揭示了一种此前未被发现的潜在系统发育地理模式。未来的研究应评估所分析区域内无脊椎动物宿主的分布和感染能力，以及世界其他鲜为人知地区的肝簇虫多样性。
