Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843) in Polish waters − its mitochondrial haplotype and role as intermediate host for trematodes

Abstract

The New Zealand mud snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray, 1843)) is on the list of one hundred worst invasive species. Researchers point out that genetic variation between populations of P. antipodarum manifested in differences in life-history traits. The main objective of our investigation was to gain pioneer knowledge about mitochondrial haplotypes of P. antipodarum in Polish waters on the background of these haplotypes recorded in the world and confirmation of the main role of P. antipodarum in the life cycle of digenean trematodes. We examined 1000 individuals of P. antipodarum from five water bodies in three different parts of Poland for the presence of larval stages of digenean trematodes. For several randomly selected individuals we carried out DNA sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene as marker of this non-indigenous mollusk. Only one 16S rRNA haplotype of P. antipodarum was recorded in Polish waters, defined in this study as haplotype 1 which turned out to be the most widespread in Europe. Potamopyrgus antipodarum is a source of trematode metacercariae belonging mainly to the family Echinostomatidae. As a result, we can demonstrate that it plays a role as the second intermediate host of digenean trematodes in European waters.

Host and parasite identity interact in scale-dependent fashion to determine parasite community structure

“…A. anatina hosts Echinoparyphium recurvatum (identified following Brian and Aldridge 2021a ), while V. viviparus hosts both E. recurvatum and Echinostoma sp. (identified to genus only given difficulty in assigning species to this genus; Stanicka et al 2020 ). Additional sources consulted for identification were Kanev ( 1994 ), Chai et al ( 2011 ), and Zhytova et al ( 2019 ).…”

New species, new story: The impact of invasive non‐host predators on host‐trematode interactions

“…Firstly, the cercariae of E. aconiatum also are benthic because they seek snails as second intermediate hosts near the bottom after their release from the first snail intermediate host (Haas et al, 2008). Secondly, the low specificity for the second intermediate molluscan host (Keeler & Huffman, 2009;Stanicka et al, 2020), in which cercariae transform into metacercariae awaiting for the ingestion by a definitive host, represents an increased transmission success compared to many other trematode taxa infecting a wide range of aquatic invertebrates (Galaktionov & Dobrovolskij, 2003). Lastly, the cercariae of E. aconiatum have a relatively large body size (500-600 μm) (Faltýnková et al, 2007), and predators are generally attracted to a larger prey as they may offer higher nutritional resources (Born-Torrijos et al, 2021;Catania et al, 2016;Orlofske et al, 2015).…”