Walstrom V Woody, Outlaw Diana C
Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi 39762.
J Parasitol. 2017 Feb;103(1):63-68. doi: 10.1645/14-693. Epub 2016 Oct 4.
Avian haemosporidian parasites provide a model system for understanding ecological and evolutionary host-parasite interactions. The diversity and distribution of these parasites remains incomplete, and, here, we provide the first range-wide assessment of avian haemosporidians in a continentally distributed host, the Northern Cardinal ( Cardinalis cardinalis ). Based on molecular techniques, we show geographical differences in prevalence and lineage diversity between host subspecies and identify several novel lineages. We use phylogenetic reconstruction to show where these lineages fit into the expanding evolutionary tree of avian haemosporidian lineages. All except 1 subspecies of Northern Cardinal are highly parasitized by a wide diversity of Plasmodium and Parahaemoproteus. Compared to published studies that used microscopy to determine prevalence in this host, we find a much higher number of infected individuals (67.4% vs. 45% or less). Consistent with previous studies, Parahaemoproteus from the Northern Cardinal was found to be highly host specific and geographically structured, whereas Plasmodium was less host specific and geographically unstructured.
禽血孢子虫寄生虫为理解生态和进化的宿主-寄生虫相互作用提供了一个模型系统。这些寄生虫的多样性和分布情况仍不完整，在此，我们首次对大陆分布宿主——北方红雀（Cardinalis cardinalis）体内的禽血孢子虫进行了全范围评估。基于分子技术，我们展示了宿主亚种之间在患病率和谱系多样性上的地理差异，并鉴定出了几个新谱系。我们使用系统发育重建来展示这些谱系在不断扩展的禽血孢子虫谱系进化树中的位置。除了1个北方红雀亚种外，所有其他亚种都被多种疟原虫和副血疟原虫高度寄生。与之前使用显微镜确定该宿主患病率的研究相比，我们发现感染个体的数量要多得多（67.4% 对45% 或更低）。与之前的研究一致，发现北方红雀体内的副血疟原虫具有高度的宿主特异性和地理结构，而疟原虫的宿主特异性较低且无地理结构。
