The recent discovery of Perkinsus honshuensis, a new Perkinsus species infecting Manila clams Ruditapes philippinarum (Sowerby, 1852), in Japan, suggested that, based on proximity, P. honshuensis could also be in Korean waters, where to date, P. olseni was believed to be the only Perkinsus species present. Perkinsus sp. infections consistently occurred among Ruditapes variegatus clams on a pebble beach on Jeju Island, off the south coast of Korea. The typical 'signet ring' morphology of the parasite was observed in the connective tissue of the digestive gland, and infection intensity was comparatively low (3.3 × 103 ± 1.2 × 104 to 1.3 × 104 ± 6.1 × 104 cells g-1 gill weight). Further DNA analyses of internal transcribed spacer (ITS-1, 5.8S and ITS-2) and non-transcribed spacer (NTS) regions of the parasite showed 98.9-99.8 and 98.5-99.5% similarity to those of P. honshuensis from Japan, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses using ITS and NTS sequences indicated that Perkinsus sp. from Jeju formed a highly supported clade with P. honshuensis. This is the first report of P. honshuensis infections in clams in Korean waters and the first report of R. variegatus as a host for that parasite.
Keywords: Histology; ITS; NTS; Perkinsus honshuensis; RFTM; Ray’s fluid thioglycollate medium; Ruditapes variegatus.