Intercontinental distributions, phylogenetic position and life cycles of species of Apharyngostrigea (Digenea, Diplostomoidea) illuminated with morphological, experimental, molecular and genomic data

Sean A Locke; Fabiana B Drago; Danimar López-Hernández; Fred D Chibwana; Verónica Núñez; Alex Van Dam; María Fernanda Achinelly; Pieter T J Johnson; Jordana Costa Alves de Assis; Alan Lane de Melo; Hudson Alves Pinto

doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.12.006

Intercontinental distributions, phylogenetic position and life cycles of species of Apharyngostrigea (Digenea, Diplostomoidea) illuminated with morphological, experimental, molecular and genomic data

Int J Parasitol. 2021 Jul;51(8):667-683. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.12.006. Epub 2021 Mar 11.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Box 9000, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681-9000, USA. Electronic address: sean.locke@upr.edu.
² Museo de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, UNLP, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
³ Department of Parasitology, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Zoology and Wildlife Conservation, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35064, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
⁵ Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Box 9000, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681-9000, USA.
⁶ Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE)-CCT-La Plata-CONICET-UNLP, Argentina.
⁷ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Ramaley N122 CB334, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

PMID: 33716019
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.12.006

Abstract

When subjected to molecular study, species of digeneans believed to be cosmopolitan are usually found to consist of complexes of species with narrower distributions. We present molecular and morphological evidence of transcontinental distributions in two species of Apharyngostrigea Ciurea, 1924, based on samples from Africa and the Americas. Sequences of cytochrome c oxidase I and, in some samples, internal transcribed spacer, revealed Apharyngostrigea pipientis (Faust, 1918) in Tanzania (first known African record), Argentina, Brazil, USA and Canada. Sequences from A. pipientis also match previously published sequences identified as Apharyngostrigea cornu (Zeder, 1800) originating in Mexico. Hosts of A. pipientis surveyed include definitive hosts from the Afrotropic, Neotropic and Nearctic, as well as first and second intermediate hosts from the Americas, including the type host and type region. In addition, metacercariae of A. pipientis were obtained from experimentally infected Poecilia reticulata, the first known record of this parasite in a non-amphibian second intermediate host. Variation in cytochrome c oxidase I haplotypes in A. pipientis is consistent with a long established, wide-ranging species with moderate genetic structure among Nearctic, Neotropic and Afrotropic regions. We attribute this to natural dispersal by birds and find no evidence of anthropogenic introductions of exotic host species. Sequences of CO1 and ITS from adult Apharyngostrigea simplex (Johnston, 1904) from Egretta thula in Argentina matched published data from cercariae from Biomphalaria straminea from Brazil and metacercariae from Cnesterodon decemmaculatus in Argentina, consistent with previous morphological and life-cycle studies reporting this parasite-originally described in Australia-in South America. Analyses of the mitochondrial genome and rDNA operon from A. pipientis support prior phylogenies based on shorter markers showing the Strigeidae Railliet, 1919 to be polyphyletic.

Keywords: Biogeography; Diplostomoidea; Helminth; Heron; Macroparasite; Northern leopard frog; Trematoda.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Brazil
Genomics
Life Cycle Stages
Phylogeny
Trematoda* / genetics
Trematode Infections* / veterinary