de Oliveira Luísa, Cedrola Franciane, Senra Marcus Vinicius Xavier, Scopel Kézia Katiani Gorza, Martinele Isabel, Tostes Raquel, Dias Roberto Júnio Pedroso, D'Agosto Marta
Laboratório de Protozoologia, Programa de Pós-graduação em Comportamento e Biologia Animal, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Campus Universitário, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Laboratório de Protozoologia, Programa de Pós-graduação em Comportamento e Biologia Animal, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Campus Universitário, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Parasitol Int. 2019 Jun;70:70-76. doi: 10.1016/j.parint.2019.02.002. Epub 2019 Feb 3.
Plasmodium parasites can infect great variety of bird species around the world inflicting the so called avian malaria, an illness that could be fatal in some cases and consequently, should be monitored and widely included into conservation programs. The aim of this study was to characterize two lineages of Plasmodium (Haemamoeba) lutzi found in some birds in the Atlantic Forest of Minas Gerais - Brazil, that were morphologically identified after blood smears analyses under light microscopy and molecularly by sequencing the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (cyt b). Besides these two lineages could be clearly morphologically identified as P.(H.) lutzi, some variations in comparison with its original description were noticed: absence of meronts and gametocytes (early and fully grown) in polychromatic erythrocytes, the larger size of pigment granules in meronts and gametocytes, and the presence of small vacuoles between pigment accumulation in fully grow macrogametocytes. Moreover, a certain degree of genetic intraspecific diversity was also observed across the lineages of P. (H.) lutzi, indicating the existence of polymorphisms within this taxon, which is uncommon in Haemosporida. These results allow discussion about species boundaries within avian hemosporidians and highlight the importance of multidisciplinary approaches for a more efficient species identification and characterization.
疟原虫可感染世界各地的多种鸟类，引发所谓的禽疟疾，这种疾病在某些情况下可能致命，因此应予以监测并广泛纳入保护计划。本研究的目的是对在巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州大西洋森林的一些鸟类中发现的两种鲁氏疟原虫（血变形虫属）谱系进行特征描述，这些谱系在光学显微镜下通过血涂片分析进行形态学鉴定，并通过对线粒体细胞色素b基因（cyt b）进行测序进行分子鉴定。除了这两个谱系在形态上可明确鉴定为鲁氏疟原虫外，还注意到与最初描述相比存在一些差异：多色红细胞中没有裂殖体和配子体（早期和成熟的），裂殖体和配子体中色素颗粒较大，成熟大配子体中色素积累之间存在小液泡。此外，在鲁氏疟原虫谱系中还观察到一定程度的种内遗传多样性，表明该分类单元内存在多态性，这在血孢子虫中并不常见。这些结果有助于讨论禽血孢子虫的物种界限，并强调多学科方法对于更有效物种鉴定和特征描述的重要性。
