Molecular evidence thatLangeronia macrocirraandLangeroniacf.parva(Trematoda: Pleurogenidae) parasites of anurans from Mexico are conspecific

Abstract

The genus Langeronia parasitizing the intestine of several species of anurans is distributed from North to Central America. We identified Langeronia macrocirra and Langeronia cf. parva from the same host and localities, and present here new data not applicable about their tegumental surface by scanning electron microscopy. We compared sequences of the rDNA ITS2 region and mtDNA cox1 gene for the two morphotypes. ITS2 exhibited a high degree of conservation. Phylogenetic reconstruction using cox1 revealed three clades (I, II, and III), which did not correspond to a previous identification or host. Little divergence was found within clades: sequences were identical in clade I, whereas clade II had 0.27% and clade III had 1.08%. Inter-clade divergence reached 8.69% (I vs. III). This pattern of genetic divergence indicated that both taxa probably belong to the same species, so we posit that the morphological changes could be correlated with development. Increasing sample size and geographical coverage will contribute to the taxonomy of the genus based on morphological and molecular evidence, and will open tracks toward the use of DNA barcodes to the genus in Mexico.

Gathering morphological and molecular data for identifying two species of trematodes from the neotropical Vaillant's frog, Lithobates vaillanti (Amphibia: Ranidae) in the highlands of Chiapas, south-eastern Mexico

“…Langeronia parva is considered a Nearctic species, since the species was previously reported from Vermont, United States (Christian, 1970). Likewise, L. macrocirra has been recorded in central Mexico (in the states of Colima, Estado de Mexico and Veracruz), but also in Central America, in locations of Guatemala and Costa Rica (Martínez-Salazar & León Règagnon, 2010); this suggests that L. macrocirra is a widely distributed species. Molecular phylogenetic analyses show that L. macrocirra may represent a species complex across its distributional range.…”

“…For instance, specimens morphologically assigned to Langeronia cf. parva by Martínez-Salazar & León Règagnon (2010) are not recovered in the same clade in the phylogenetic tree; sequences of these specimens appear in two clades, nested together with L. macrocirra ; therefore, there is no correlation between morphology and molecular data (Martínez-Salazar & León Règagnon, 2010). This suggests that the presence of pre-pharynx, and the ovary and testes shape are probably not informative characters.…”

Morphological and molecular assessment of the diversity of trematode communities in freshwater gastropods and bivalves in Los Tuxtlas tropical rainforest

“…Adults of L . macrocirra have been reported in frogs in LE (Paredes-Calderón et al ., 2004; Paredes-León et al ., 2008; Martínez-Salazar & León-Règagnon, 2010).…”

Genetic diversity of Clonorchis sinensis (Trematoda: Opisthorchiidae) in the Russian southern Far East based on mtDNA cox1 sequence variation

“…mtDNA markers are typically used in population and ecological genetic studies on parasites as well as in phylogenetic studies (saijuntha et al 2008, Zhao et al 2009, Ai et al 2010, Martínez-salazar and león-règagnon 2010, liu et al 2012, scholz et al 2011.…”