Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2020 May 21;10(1):8480. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-65523-x.
The use of a sensitive and accurate parasite detection methodology is crucial in studies exploring prevalence of parasites in host populations or communities, and uncertainty in identifying parasite genera and/or lineages may limit the understanding of host-parasite interactions. Here, we used a multistate occupancy approach that accounts for imperfect detection to assess whether sex and breeding season influenced the prevalence of a specific Haemoproteus lineage (TARUF02) in a white-lined tanager population. Likewise, we explored whether the probability of detecting the target parasite in an infected bird using PCR and sequencing analyses may be influenced by season and host sex. We found little evidence that sex influenced the probability of an individual host being infected by a haemosporidian parasite. Conversely, we found that the probability of infection by Haemoproteus TARUF02 was ~30% higher during the breeding season, reflecting a higher prevalence of this parasite in this season. The probability that PCR detects DNA of haemosporidian parasite was higher for female birds, suggesting that they are more prone to be parasitized with parasitemia levels that are more successfully detected by molecular analysis. Sequencing successfully determined the Haemoproteus TARUF02 lineage in 60% of samples collected during the breeding season and 84% of samples collected during the non-breeding season. Understanding the ecology of hosts and aspects of their physiology that may influence the parasite infection is essential to better understanding of hemoparasite infections and how parasites influence their native hosts, through decreasing reproductive success, lifespan, and/or survival.
使用敏感且准确的寄生虫检测方法对于研究宿主种群或群落中寄生虫的流行情况至关重要，而对寄生虫属和/或谱系识别的不确定性可能会限制对宿主-寄生虫相互作用的理解。在这里，我们使用了一种多状态占有方法来评估性别和繁殖季节是否会影响白线斑唐纳雀种群中特定 Haemoproteus 谱系（TARUF02）的流行率，这种方法可以考虑到不完全检测的情况。同样，我们还探讨了使用 PCR 和测序分析检测目标寄生虫的概率是否会受到季节和宿主性别的影响。我们几乎没有发现性别会影响个体宿主被血孢子虫寄生虫感染的概率。相反，我们发现 Haemoproteus TARUF02 的感染概率在繁殖季节期间增加了约 30%，反映了该季节寄生虫的更高流行率。PCR 检测血孢子虫寄生虫 DNA 的概率在雌性鸟类中更高，这表明它们更容易被寄生虫感染，并且寄生虫的寄生血症水平更容易通过分子分析检测到。在繁殖季节收集的 60%的样本和非繁殖季节收集的 84%的样本中，测序成功确定了 Haemoproteus TARUF02 谱系。了解宿主的生态学及其可能影响寄生虫感染的生理方面，对于更好地理解血液寄生虫感染以及寄生虫如何通过降低繁殖成功率、寿命和/或生存能力来影响其本地宿主至关重要。
