Host Specificity of Microsporidia Pathogenic to Forest Lepidoptera

Solter, Leellen F.; Pilarska, Daniela; Vossbrinck, Charles F.

doi:10.1006/bcon.2000.0902

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…These examples are particularly worrying because the fate of the meiospores of these species is unknown. Previous studies have investigated the host range of microsporidian isolates with regard only to their determinate hosts [65,66]. There are, however, close similarities in meiospore production between Amblyospora , Vairimorpha and Thelohania .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple losses of sex within a single genus of Microsporidia

Ironside

2007

BMC Evol Biol

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Background: Most asexual eukaryotic lineages have arisen recently from sexual ancestors and contain few ecologically distinct species, providing evidence for long-term advantages of sex. Ancient asexual lineages provide rare exceptions to this rule and so can yield valuable information relating to the evolutionary forces underlying the maintenance of sex. Microsporidia are parasitic, unicellular fungi. They include many asexual species which have traditionally been grouped together into large, presumably ancient taxonomic groups. However, these putative ancient asexual lineages have been identified on the basis of morphology, life cycles and small subunit ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene sequences, all of which hold questionable value in accurately inferring phylogenetic relationships among microsporidia.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple losses of sex within a single genus of Microsporidia

Ironside

2007

BMC Evol Biol

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“…Evidence from other crustacean invasions is less easy to interpret, the pontocaspian gammarid Dikerogammarus villosus has spread across Western Europe from its Ponto-Caspian origins over the last ninety years. They also found that microsporidia infecting the Gypsy moth in its native range were distinct from species affecting sympatric Lepidoptera (Solter et al 2000). D, which was abundant across the invasive range and may have been introduced with source populations together with three further parasites which were very rare and were similar but not identical to N. granulosis and Dictyocoela spp.…”

Section: A D a P T I V E T R A N S M I S S I O N S T R A T E G I E S:mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…D, which was abundant across the invasive range and may have been introduced with source populations together with three further parasites which were very rare and were similar but not identical to N. granulosis and Dictyocoela spp. Some caution should be exercised in interpreting these data as the isolates retrieved from Lymantria were very closely related to those from sympatric hosts and a number were able to cross-infect when tested in bioassay (Solter et al 2000). It is not clear whether these parasites have been acquired from sympatric amphipod species or are close relatives derived from Ponto-Caspian Dikerogammarus.…”

Section: A D a P T I V E T R A N S M I S S I O N S T R A T E G I E S:mentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecology and evolution of microsporidian parasites

Smith

2009

Parasitology

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The phylum Microspora is ancient and diverse and affects a wide range of hosts. There is unusually high use of vertical transmission and this has significant consequences for transmission and pathogenicity. Vertical transmission is associated with low pathogenesis but nevertheless can have significant impact through associated traits such as sex ratio distortion. The majority of microsporidia have mixed transmission cycles and it is not clear whether they are able to modify their phenotype according to environmental circumstances. There is a great need to understand the mechanisms controlling transmission and one of the first challenges for the genomics era is to find genes associated with life cycle stages. Similarly we cannot currently predict the ease with which these parasites might switch between host groups. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that there are strong relationships between Microsporidia and their hosts. However closer typing of parasite isolates, in relation to host range and disease phenotype, is required to assess future environmental risk from these pathogens.

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“…Many microsporidia, including Anncaliia algerae (Undeen & Alger 1976) and various Nosema and Vairimorpha species (Solter & Maddox 1998, Solter et al 2000, seem to be generalist parasites able to switch hosts across somewhat disparate taxa. Others, such as the Amblyospora species, are relatively host specific.…”

Section: Host Host Range and Host Tissuementioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogeny of the Microsporidia

2014

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The microsporidia possess several apomorphic (defining) characters that distinguish them as a taxon: (i) the presence, in the spore stage, of a coiled polar filament, (ii) the posterior vacuole, (iii) the anterior polaroplast, and (iv) the diplokaryon (not present in all species). The advent of molecular analysis has radically changed how we classify the microsporidia, resulting in a major revolution in microsporidian taxonomy which includes the reassignment of many genera as well as the erection of new genera.Most modern microsporidian species descriptions include detailed microscopic and ultrastructural images, and many of the more recent descriptions also include a small subunit ribosomal DNA (ssrDNA) sequence analysis. Characters that have traditionally been used for taxonomic purposes include phenotypic, developmental, and ecological characters. While these characters provide a convenient and important means for classifying newly discovered species, the phylogenetic significance of taxonomic groupings based on these characters is not clear.With the advent of modern methods of systematics and, in particular, cladistic analysis (Hennig 1966), attempts were made to develop microsporidian phylogenies, but the significance of the characters commonly used for microsporidian classification remained elusive. The fortunate concurrent development of digital computers and DNA sequencing technology allowed for the analysis of microsporidian relationships using hundreds of characters each with four distinct character states. The use of molecular data for phylogenetic analyses has resulted in new insight into the relationships within and among most taxa, including the microsporidia.We have always thought that the logical way to integrate DNA sequence data and other characters used for microsporidian classification is to create molecular phylogenies of the microsporidia and then to place the nonmolecular data upon the tree (Baker et al. 1994) (Fig. 6.1). A complete analysis will be a monumental effort, but viewing a phylogeny with the nonmolecular characters added would help understand the evolution of the microsporidia, including the loss and gain of alternate hosts, host switching, loss and gain of sexual recombination, use of the pansporoblastic membrane, changes in the numbers of coils in the polar filament versus tissues infected, strategies of generalist versus specialist parasites, and changes in genome size and composition.When we add nonmolecular characters to a molecular phylogeny of the microsporidia, we see a lot of homoplasy (convergence, parallelism, and reversal). It is likely that the limited sizes of microsporidian genomes (Katinka et al. 2001) and the obligate parasitic nature of these organisms contribute to these homoplasies, as character states may be changing 204 Chapter 6 Phylogeny of the Microsporidia back and forth rather rapidly as the microsporidia recycle a limited number of character states in response to changes in host and host ecology. STRUCTURAL, ULTRASTRUCTURAL, AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERS(s...

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Host Specificity of Microsporidia Pathogenic to Forest Lepidoptera

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Multiple losses of sex within a single genus of Microsporidia

Multiple losses of sex within a single genus of Microsporidia

The ecology and evolution of microsporidian parasites

Phylogeny of the Microsporidia

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