Biodiversity of apicomplexans from marine invertebrates
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Apicomplexan protists, such as Toxoplasma, Plasmodium and Cryptosporidium, are intensively studied as agents causing human and animal diseases. But less is known about basal apicomplexans, such as proto- and agamococcidians, blastogregarines and gregarines, which inhabit marine invertebrates and tunicates, and appear to be very important in the comprehension of evolutionary pathways and phylogenetic relations within phylum Apicomplexa (Diakin et al. 2012). Although some ancestral features have given them a reputation of being ‘primitive’ lineages of the Apicomplexa, the majority of them exhibit unique novel and sophisticated adaptations to their life style. These parasites, especially gregarines, exhibit an enormous diversity in cell morphology and dimensions, depending on their parasitic strategy and the surrounding environment (Dyakin & Simdyanov 2005). They seem to be a perfect example of a coevolution between a group of parasites and their hosts. We already obtained morphological data about protococcidian Eleutheroschizon dubosqui, agamococcidian Rhytidocystis sp., blastogregarine Siedleckia nematoides, archigregarine Selenidium sp. from polychaete, gregarine inserta sedis Digyalum sp. from mollusk, basal eugregarines Urospora spp. from polychaete and holothurian, and septate eugregarine Polyrhabdina parasitizing polychaete. For some species we performed molecular-phylogenetic analysis of 18S and 28S sequences. Our intent is also to extent our study to marine crustaceans, priapulids and hemichordates. |
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