Morphological and Molecular Data Reveal Two New Species of Viannaia (Nematoda: Viannaiidae), Parasitizing Opossums (Mammalia: Didelphidae) in Mexico

• Published in: The Journal of parasitology Vol. 107; no. 3; pp. 388 - 403
• Main Authors: Ramírez-Cañas, Sara Angélica, López-Caballero, Jorge D., Mata-López, Rosario
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society of Parasitologists 01.05.2021; Allen Press Inc
• Subjects: Animals; Bayes Theorem; Bayesian analysis; COI; Cytochrome; Cytochrome-c oxidase; Cytochromes; Datasets; Didelphidae; DNA polymerase; DNA, Helminth - chemistry; DNA, Helminth - isolation & purification; DNA, Intergenic - genetics; Electron Transport Complex IV - genetics; Ethanol; Female; Genes, Mitochondrial; Genetic distances; Integrative taxonomy; Intestine; Intestines - parasitology; Likelihood Functions; Male; Marsupials; Mexico - epidemiology; Mitochondria; Molecular phylogenetics; Monkeys & apes; Morphology; Nematoda; Nematodes; New species; Opossums - parasitology; Parasitology; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; rDNA; RNA, Ribosomal, 5.8S - genetics; Sequence Alignment; Software; Spacer region; Statistical inference; Taxonomy; Topology; Trees (mathematics); Trichostrongyloidea - anatomy & histology; Trichostrongyloidea - classification; Trichostrongyloidea - genetics; Trichostrongyloidea - ultrastructure; Trichostrongyloidiasis - epidemiology; Trichostrongyloidiasis - parasitology; Trichostrongyloidiasis - veterinary; Viannaiinae; Mexico; Viannaiinae; rDNA; Molecular phylogenetics; Didelphidae; Genetic distances; COI; Nematoda; Integrative taxonomy
• ISSN: 0022-3395; 1937-2345
• DOI: 10.1645/18-199

Two new species of Viannaia from the intestine of the North American opossums, Didelphis virginiana (Virginia opossum), and Philander opossum (gray four-eyed opossum), are described based on morphological and molecular data, through an integrative taxonomic approach. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses for each dataset and the concatenated dataset were performed using a mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene, and the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS1–5.8S–ITS2). The phylogenetic analyses revealed 2 new species that occur in Mexico, one from the western state of Colima and another from the southern state of Chiapas. Our phylogenetic trees for both molecular markers and concatenated datasets yielded similar topologies with high bootstrap values and posterior probabilities. Viannaia is recovered as a monophyletic group, but the family Viannaiidae appears as non-monophyletic, due to the position of Travassostrongylus scheibelorum, similar to previous studies. Finally, the morphology of Viannaia and Hoineffia is discussed.