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Plasmodium ouropretensis, n. sp., a new case of non-erythrocytic species within lizard malaria parasites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2021

Oscar Hernandes Córdoba Open the ORCID record for Oscar Hernandes Córdoba [Opens in a new window] ,
Francisco C. Ferreira Open the ORCID record for Francisco C. Ferreira [Opens in a new window] ,
M. Andreína Pacheco ,
Ananias A. Escalante  and
Érika Martins Braga
Oscar Hernandes Córdoba*
Affiliation:
Red de Biología y Conservación de Vertebrados, Instituto de Ecología, A.C. Xalapa, Veracruz, México Malaria Laboratory, Department of Parasitology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte – MG, Brazil
Francisco C. Ferreira
Affiliation:
Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA Center for Vector Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
M. Andreína Pacheco
Affiliation:
Biology Department/Institute of Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine (iGEM), Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Ananias A. Escalante
Affiliation:
Biology Department/Institute of Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine (iGEM), Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Érika Martins Braga
Affiliation:
Malaria Laboratory, Department of Parasitology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte – MG, Brazil
*
Author for correspondence: Oscar Hernandes Córdoba, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Delimiting and describing Plasmodium species in reptiles remains a pressing problem in Haemosporida taxonomy. The few morphological characters used can overlap, and the significance of some life-history traits is not fully understood. Morphologically identical lizard Plasmodium forms have been reported infecting different cell types (red and white blood cells) in the same host and have been considered the same species. An example is Plasmodium tropiduri tropiduri, a species known to infect erythrocytes, thrombocytes and lymphocyte-like cells. Here, both forms of P. t. tropiduri were analysed using light microscope-based morphological characteristics and phylogenetic inferences based on almost complete mitochondrial genomes of parasites naturally infecting lizards in southeastern Brazil. Although morphologically similar, two distinct phylogenetic lineages infecting erythrocytes and non-erythrocytic cells were found. The lineage found in the erythrocytes forms a monophyletic group with species from Colombia. However, the non-erythrocytic lineage shares a recent common ancestor with Plasmodium leucocytica, which infects leucocytes in lizards from the Caribbean islands. Here, Plasmodium ouropretensis n. sp. is described as a species that infects thrombocytes and lymphocyte-like cells.

Keywords

Cryptic speciescytb geneHaemosporidamtDNA sequencing
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 148 , Issue 12 , October 2021 , pp. 1467 - 1474
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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