Phylogenetic Position of the Adeleorinid Coccidia (Myzozoa, Apicomplexa, Coccidia, Eucoccidiorida, Adeleorina) Inferred Using 18S rDNA Sequences

Abstract

Investigating the evolutionary relationships of the major groups of Apicomplexa remains an important area of study. Morphological features and host-parasite relationships continue to be important in the systematics of the adeleorinid coccidia (suborder Adeleorina), but the systematics of these parasites have not been well-supported or have been constrained by data that were lacking or difficult to interpret. Previous phylogenetic studies of the Adeleorina have been based on morphological and developmental characters of several well-described species or based on nuclear 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences from taxa of limited taxonomic diversity. Twelve new 18S rDNA sequences from adeleorinid coccidia were combined with published sequences to study the molecular phylogeny of taxa within the Adeleorina and to investigate the evolutionary relationships of adeleorinid parasites within the Apicomplexa. Three phylogenetic methods supported strongly that the suborder Adeleorina formed a monophyletic clade within the Apicomplexa. Most widely recognized families within the Adeleorina were hypothesized to be monophyletic in all analyses, although the single Hemolivia species included in the analyses was the sister taxon to a Hepatozoon sp. within a larger clade that contained all other Hepatozoon spp. making the family Hepatozoidae paraphyletic. There was an apparent relationship between the various clades generated by the analyses and the definitive (invertebrate) host parasitized and, to lesser extent, the type of intermediate (vertebrate) host exploited by the adeleorinid parasites. We conclude that additional taxon sampling and use of other genetic markers apart from 18S rDNA will be required to better resolve relationships among these parasites.

Molecular survey of parasites in introduced Pelophylax perezi (Ranidae) water frogs in the Azores

“…Thus, although all currently analysed Hepatozoon from amphibians form a clade, relationships within this clade do not match the vertebrate intermediate host phylogeny. Remaining relationships within the Hepatozoon are similar to those previously inferred (Barta et al 2012.…”

“…All trees prior to reaching stationary were discarded as burn-in samples (25%), and remaining trees were combined in a 50% majority consensus tree. Following Barta et al (2012), Babesiosoma stableri and Dactylosoma ranarum were used as outgroups for rooting the phylogenetic tree for the Hepatozoon sequences. Following Zhan et al (2009), Urceolaria urechi was defined as an outgroup to root the Trichodina/Trichodinella analysis.…”

FirstHemoliviafrom southern Africa: reassigning chelonianHaemogregarina parvulaDias, 1953 (Adeleorina: Haemogregarinidae) toHemolivia(Adeleorina: Karyolysidae)

“…The phylogenetic analyses performed here concur with the findings of Barta et al (2012), Haklová-Kočíková et al (2014), Kvičerová et al (2014) and Netherlands et al (2014aNetherlands et al ( , 2014b, but conflict with those of Harris et al (2013) in that Hemolivia is seen as a sister taxon to Hepatozoon. A similar problem is evident for classification of species of Karyolysus Labbé, 1894, which also fall within the Hepatozoon clade (see Haklová-Kočíková et al 2014).…”

Parasites dominate hyperdiverse soil protist communities in Neotropical rainforests

“…Phylogenetic placements of query OTU representatives that were taxonomically assigned to the Apicomplexa were conducted using a full-length reference multiple sequence alignment and corresponding phylogeny comprising 190 taxa from all major Alveolate clades (see Supplementary Data 3 and 4 for GenBank accession numbers, sequences and clade assignments). The taxon sampling was collated from a range of publications relating to eukaryotic diversity in general and Alveolata diversity and phylogeny in particular; for example, refs 20,[63][64][65][66][67][68][69] . It is also acknowledged that single gene trees are unable to resolve the backbone of the Alveolate phylogeny.…”