0
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Disease in the dark: molecular characterization of Polychromophilus murinus in temperate zone bats revealed a worldwide distribution of this malaria-like disease.

      1 , ,
      Molecular ecology
      Wiley-Blackwell

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          For a better understanding of the complex coevolutionary processes between hosts and parasites, accurate identification of the actors involved in the interaction is of fundamental importance. Blood parasites of the Order Haemosporidia, responsible for malaria, have become the focus of a broad range of studies in evolutionary biology. Interestingly, molecular-based studies on avian malaria have revealed much higher species diversity than previously inferred with morphology. Meanwhile, studies on bat haemosporidian have been largely neglected. In Europe, only one genus (Polychromophilus) and two species have been morphologically described. To evaluate the presence of potential cryptic species and parasite prevalence, we undertook a molecular characterization of Polychromophilus in temperate zone bats. We used a nested-PCR approach on the cytochrome b mitochondrial gene to detect the presence of parasites in 237 bats belonging to four different species and in the dipteran bat fly Nycteribia kolenatii, previously described as being the vector of Polychromophilus. Polychromophilus murinus was found in the four bat species and in the insect vector with prevalence ranging from 4% for Myotis myotis to 51% for M. daubentoni. By sequencing 682 bp, we then investigated the phylogenetic relationships of Polychromophilus to other published malarial lineages. Seven haplotypes were found, all very closely related, suggesting the presence of a single species in our samples. These haplotypes formed a well-defined clade together with Haemosporidia of tropical bats, revealing a worldwide distribution of this parasite mostly neglected by malarial studies since the 1980s.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          Mol. Ecol.
          Molecular ecology
          Wiley-Blackwell
          1365-294X
          0962-1083
          Mar 2011
          : 20
          : 5
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Le Biophore, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
          Article
          10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04905.x
          21073585
          b3f3dd65-17ee-49f0-b82e-cb30d0777e60
          History

          Comments

          Comment on this article