Laboratório de Protozoologia (LabProto), LAZ, Programa de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação da Natureza, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Campus Universitário, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, 36036-900, Brazil.
Departamento de Medicina Veterinária, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil.
Parasitol Res. 2021 Jan;120(1):243-255. doi: 10.1007/s00436-020-06958-z. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
Haemoproteus syrnii is a haemosporidian parasite found in owls. Although morphological and molecular data on the species is available, its exo-erythrocytic development was never researched. In this study, we provide the morphological, morphometric, and molecular characterization of H. syrnii populations found in owl species from Minas Gerais, southeast Brazil. We also characterized the coalescent species delimitation based on the molecular and histopathology data. Samples from 54 owls from six different species were analyzed, generating 11 sequences of the cyt b gene, from which six were new sequences. The overall prevalence of infection was high (72.22%). The H. syrnii sequences were grouped into two well-supported independent clades, which included other Haemoproteus (Parahaemoproteus) species. This was supported by both the coalescent species delimitation analysis and by the genetic divergence between lineages of these distinct clades. There were small morphological and morphometric differences within the population presented in this study. However, when compared with other studies, the molecular analysis demonstrated considerable intraspecific variation and suggests potential cryptic species. The histopathological analysis revealed, for the first time, that lungs and skeletal muscle are exo-erythrocytic stage location of H. syrnii, and that the parasite is linked to the histopathological changes found in owls. This study brings new data from Haemoproteus species biology and host infection, and improves host-parasite relationship understanding under an owl conservation perspective.
锡耶纳疟原虫是一种寄生在猫头鹰身上的血孢子虫。虽然已经有关于该物种的形态学和分子数据，但它的外红细胞发育从未被研究过。在这项研究中，我们提供了在巴西东南部米纳斯吉拉斯州的猫头鹰物种中发现的锡耶纳疟原虫种群的形态学、形态计量学和分子特征。我们还根据分子和组织病理学数据对合并种的界限进行了特征描述。从六种不同的物种中分析了 54 只猫头鹰的样本，生成了 11 条 cyt b 基因序列，其中 6 条是新序列。感染的总体流行率很高（72.22%）。锡耶纳疟原虫序列分为两个得到很好支持的独立分支，其中包括其他血孢子虫（疟原虫）物种。这得到了合并种界限分析以及这些不同分支的谱系之间遗传分化的支持。在本研究中，所呈现的种群存在微小的形态和形态计量学差异。然而，与其他研究相比，分子分析显示出相当大的种内变异，并表明可能存在隐种。组织病理学分析首次表明，肺和骨骼肌是锡耶纳疟原虫的外红细胞阶段位置，并且寄生虫与在猫头鹰中发现的组织病理学变化有关。这项研究为血孢子虫物种生物学和宿主感染提供了新的数据，并在猫头鹰保护的角度上提高了对宿主-寄生虫关系的理解。
