Phylogenetic relationships of the nematode subfamily Phascolostrongylinae from macropodid and vombatid marsupials inferred using mitochondrial protein sequence data

Tanapan Sukee; Ian Beveridge; Anson V Koehler; Ross Hall; Robin B Gasser; Abdul Jabbar

doi:10.1186/s13071-021-05028-2

Phylogenetic relationships of the nematode subfamily Phascolostrongylinae from macropodid and vombatid marsupials inferred using mitochondrial protein sequence data

Parasit Vectors. 2021 Oct 9;14(1):523. doi: 10.1186/s13071-021-05028-2.

Authors

Tanapan Sukee¹, Ian Beveridge^{2

3}, Anson V Koehler², Ross Hall², Robin B Gasser², Abdul Jabbar²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. tsukee@student.unimelb.edu.au.
² Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³ South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

Abstract

Background: The subfamily Phascolostrongylinae (Superfamily Strongyloidea) comprises nematodes that are parasitic in the gastrointestinal tracts of macropodid (Family Macropodidae) and vombatid (Family Vombatidae) marsupials. Currently, nine genera and 20 species have been attributed to the subfamily Phascolostrongylinae. Previous studies using sequence data sets for the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA showed conflicting topologies between the Phascolostrongylinae and related subfamilies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to validate the phylogenetic relationships within the Phascolostrongylinae and its relationship with the families Chabertiidae and Strongylidae using mitochondrial amino acid sequences.

Methods: The sequences of all 12 mitochondrial protein-coding genes were obtained by next-generation sequencing of individual adult nematodes (n = 8) representing members of the Phascolostrongylinae. These sequences were conceptually translated and the phylogenetic relationships within the Phascolostrongylinae and its relationship with the families Chabertiidae and Strongylidae were inferred from aligned, concatenated amino acid sequence data sets.

Results: Within the Phascolostrongylinae, the wombat-specific genera grouped separately from the genera occurring in macropods. Two of the phascolostrongyline tribes were monophyletic, including Phascolostrongylinea and Hypodontinea, whereas the tribe Macropostrongyloidinea was paraphyletic. The tribe Phascolostrongylinea occurring in wombats was closely related to Oesophagostomum spp., also from the family Chabertiidae, which formed a sister relationship with the Phascolostrongylinae.

Conclusion: The current phylogenetic relationship within the subfamily Phascolostrongylinae supports findings from a previous study based on ITS sequence data. This study contributes also to the understanding of the phylogenetic position of the subfamily Phascolostrongylinae within the Chabertiidae. Future studies investigating the relationships between the Phascolostrongylinae and Cloacininae from macropodid marsupials may advance our knowledge of the phylogeny of strongyloid nematodes in marsupials.

Keywords: Macropodid marsupials; Mitochondrial DNA; Phascolostrongylinae; Vombatid marsupials.

MeSH terms

Animals
DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / genetics
Female
Gastrointestinal Tract / parasitology
Macropodidae / parasitology*
Male
Marsupialia / classification
Marsupialia / parasitology*
Mitochondrial Proteins / genetics*
Phylogeny*
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Strongyloidea / classification*
Strongyloidea / genetics*

Substances

DNA, Ribosomal Spacer
Mitochondrial Proteins

Abstract

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding