Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of the Free State, QwaQwa campus, Free State, South Africa.
Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Parasit Vectors. 2016 Aug 8;9(1):437. doi: 10.1186/s13071-016-1702-3.
Saurian malaria parasites are diverse apicomplexan blood parasites including the family Plasmodiidae Mesnil, 1903, and have been studied since the early 1900s. Currently, at least 27 species of Plasmodium are recorded in African lizards, and to date only two species, Plasmodium zonuriae (Pienaar, 1962) and Plasmodium cordyli Telford, 1987, have been reported from the African endemic family Cordylidae. This paper presents a description of a new malaria parasite in a cordylid lizard and provides a phylogenetic hypothesis for saurian Plasmodium species from South Africa. Furthermore, it provides a tabular review of the Plasmodium species that to date have been formally described infecting species of African lizards.
Blood samples were collected from 77 specimens of Pseudocordylus melanotus (A. Smith, 1838) from Platberg reserve in the Eastern Free State, and two specimens of Cordylus vittifer (Reichenow, 1887) from the Roodewalshoek conservancy in Mpumalanga (South Africa). Blood smears were Giemsa-stained, screened for haematozoa, specifically saurian malaria parasites, parasite stages were photographed and measured. A small volume was also preserved for TEM studies. Plasmodium and Haemoproteus primer sets, with a nested-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol, were employed to target a fragment of the cytochrome-b (cyt-b) gene region. Resulting sequences of the saurian Plasmodium species' isolates were compared with each other and to other known Plasmodium spp. sequences in the GenBank database.
The presence of P. zonuriae in both specimens of the type lizard host C. vittifer was confirmed using morphological characteristics, which subsequently allowed for the species' molecular characterisation. Of the 77 P. melanotus, 44 were parasitised by a Plasmodium species, which when compared morphologically to other African saurian Plasmodium spp. and molecularly to P. zonuriae, supported its description as a new species Plasmodium intabazwe n. sp.
This is the first morphological and molecular account of Plasmodium species within the African endemic family Cordylidae from South Africa. The study highlights the need for molecular analysis of other cordylid Plasmodium species within Africa. Future studies should also include elucidating of the life-cycles of these species, thus promoting the use of both morphological and molecular characteristics in species descriptions of saurian malaria parasites.
蜥形目疟原虫是多种多样的顶复门血液寄生虫，包括疟原虫科 Mesnil，1903 年，自 20 世纪初以来一直在研究。目前，在非洲蜥蜴中至少记录了 27 种疟原虫，迄今为止，只有两种疟原虫，即 Plasmodium zonuriae (Pienaar, 1962) 和 Plasmodium cordyli Telford, 1987，已从非洲特有科 Cordylidae 中报道。本文描述了一种新的来自 Cordylidae 蜥蜴的疟原虫，并为南非的蜥形目疟原虫种提供了系统发育假说。此外，它还提供了一个表格综述，列出了迄今为止已正式描述感染非洲蜥蜴种的疟原虫。
从 Platberg 保护区的 77 只 Pseudocordylus melanotus（A. Smith，1838）和 Mpumalanga 的 Roodewalshoek 自然保护区的 2 只 Cordylus vittifer（Reichenow，1887）标本中采集血液样本。血涂片用吉姆萨染色，筛查血原生动物，特别是蜥形目疟原虫，拍摄寄生虫阶段并测量。还保存了一小部分用于 TEM 研究。使用带有嵌套聚合酶链反应 (PCR) 方案的 Plasmodium 和 Haemoproteus 引物组，针对细胞色素-b (cyt-b) 基因区域的一个片段进行靶向。与其他已知的 Plasmodium spp. 序列进行比较。结果序列。从两种类型蜥蜴宿主 C. vittifer 中确认了 P. zonuriae 的存在，这是通过形态特征来实现的，随后对该物种进行了分子特征描述。在 77 只 P. melanotus 中，有 44 只被一种疟原虫感染，通过与其他非洲蜥形目疟原虫种的形态学比较和与 P. zonuriae 的分子比较，支持将其描述为一种新的疟原虫物种 Plasmodium intabazwe n. sp.。
这是首次从南非报道非洲特有科 Cordylidae 内的疟原虫种的形态学和分子学描述。该研究强调了需要对非洲其他 Cordylidae 疟原虫种进行分子分析。未来的研究还应包括阐明这些物种的生命周期，从而促进在描述蜥形目疟原虫时使用形态学和分子特征。
