Host specificity in avian blood parasites: a study ofPlasmodiumandHaemoproteusmitochondrial DNA amplified from birds

Abstract

A fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of avian malaria (genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium) was ampli¢ed from blood samples of 12 species of passerine birds from the genera Acrocephalus, Phylloscopus and Parus. By sequencing 478 nucleotides of the obtained fragments, we found 17 di¡erent mitochondrial haplotypes of Haemoproteus or Plasmodium among the 12 bird species investigated. Only one out of the 17 haplotypes was found in more than one host species, this exception being a haplotype detected in both blue tits (Parus caeruleus) and great tits (Parus major). The phylogenetic tree which was constructed grouped the sequences into two clades, most probably representing Haemoproteus and Plasmodium, respectively. We found two to four di¡erent parasite mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes in four bird species. The phylogenetic tree obtained from the mtDNA of the parasites matched the phylogenetic tree of the bird hosts poorly. For example, the two tit species and the willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) carried parasites di¡ering by only 0.6% sequence divergence, suggesting that Haemoproteus shift both between species within the same genus and also between species in di¡erent families. Hence, host shifts seem to have occurred repeatedly in this parasite^host system. We discuss this in terms of the possible evolutionary consequences for these bird species.

Morphological versus molecular identification of avian Haemosporidia: an exploration of three species concepts

“…Many other studies treat a single base difference among parasite isolates as presumably non-recombining ' lineages' (for example, Bensch et al (2000), Waldenstrom et al (2002), Fallon et al (2005)). However, such small genetic distances found among infections could represent variation that is intraspecific, interspecific, or both.…”

“…This effort was provoked by publication of a major monograph on avian haemosporidia that reviews all the relevant literature, including the original species descriptions (Valkiunas, 2005). Only a few publications have previously presented comparisons of morphological and gene sequence data for avian haemosporidian parasites, and these include only 1 or few species in the analysis (Bensch et al 2000 ;Bensch et al 2004 ;Kissinger et al 2002). Our research tactic was to have the morphological identifications done in one laboratory, and the gene sequence analysis done in another, thus eliminating any biasing of the identifications to known species.…”

Blood parasites in noddies and boobies from Brazilian offshore islands – differences between species and influence of nesting habitat

“…Genetic methods using PCR can detect infections missed by blood smears (e.g. Feldman and Freed 1995;Bensch et al 2000;Perkins and Schall, 2002;Ricklefs et al 2005;Parker et al 2006;Merino et al 2008). PCR has also been shown to be more sensitive than microscopic-based diagnosis of Babesia spp.…”

Plasmodiumspp. in raptors on the Eurasian-African migration route

“…Molecular studies provide evidences for relatively high fidelity between avian hosts and Haemosporidian species (Bensch et al, 2000), but also host sharing and host shifts not only between host species of the same genus but between species of diverse families (Bensch et al, 2004;Waldenstrom et al, 2002). Unfortunately, presently, much of the published molecular data remains divorced from the microscopically determined taxonomic classification (see Valkiunas et al, 2006), and as yet there is no way to link most molecular results with taxonomic data.…”