Intercontinental distributions, phylogenetic position and life cycles of species of Apharyngostrigea (Digenea, Diplostomoidea) illuminated with morphological, experimental, molecular and genomic data

• Published in: International journal for parasitology Vol. 51; no. 8; pp. 667 - 683
• Main Authors: Locke, Sean A., Drago, Fabiana B., López-Hernández, Danimar, Chibwana, Fred D., Núñez, Verónica, Van Dam, Alex, Achinelly, María Fernanda, Johnson, Pieter T.J., de Assis, Jordana Costa Alves, de Melo, Alan Lane, Pinto, Hudson Alves
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2021
• Subjects: Biogeography; Diplostomoidea; Helminth; Heron; Macroparasite; Northern leopard frog; Trematoda; Helminth; Heron; Diplostomoidea; Biogeography; Northern leopard frog; Macroparasite; Trematoda
• ISSN: 0020-7519; 1879-0135
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.12.006

[Display omitted] •The presence of Apharyngostrigea pipientis in Nearctic, Neotropic and Afrotropic regions shown using CO1.•First known report of A. pipientis in Africa, but no evidence of recent introduction.•First known experimental demonstration of A. pipientis compatibility with a teleost second intermediate host.•Molecular links were found among all life-cycle stages of A. pipientis and Apharyngostrigea simplex.•The whole mitogenome and rDNA operon of A. pipientis show paraphyly in Strigeidae. When subjected to molecular study, species of digeneans believed to be cosmopolitan are usually found to consist of complexes of species with narrower distributions. We present molecular and morphological evidence of transcontinental distributions in two species of Apharyngostrigea Ciurea, 1924, based on samples from Africa and the Americas. Sequences of cytochrome c oxidase I and, in some samples, internal transcribed spacer, revealed Apharyngostrigea pipientis (Faust, 1918) in Tanzania (first known African record), Argentina, Brazil, USA and Canada. Sequences from A. pipientis also match previously published sequences identified as Apharyngostrigea cornu (Zeder, 1800) originating in Mexico. Hosts of A. pipientis surveyed include definitive hosts from the Afrotropic, Neotropic and Nearctic, as well as first and second intermediate hosts from the Americas, including the type host and type region. In addition, metacercariae of A. pipientis were obtained from experimentally infected Poecilia reticulata, the first known record of this parasite in a non-amphibian second intermediate host. Variation in cytochrome c oxidase I haplotypes in A. pipientis is consistent with a long established, wide-ranging species with moderate genetic structure among Nearctic, Neotropic and Afrotropic regions. We attribute this to natural dispersal by birds and find no evidence of anthropogenic introductions of exotic host species. Sequences of CO1 and ITS from adult Apharyngostrigea simplex (Johnston, 1904) from Egretta thula in Argentina matched published data from cercariae from Biomphalaria straminea from Brazil and metacercariae from Cnesterodon decemmaculatus in Argentina, consistent with previous morphological and life-cycle studies reporting this parasite—originally described in Australia—in South America. Analyses of the mitochondrial genome and rDNA operon from A. pipientis support prior phylogenies based on shorter markers showing the Strigeidae Railliet, 1919 to be polyphyletic.