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Description of two new species of marine gregarine parasites (Apicomplexa) from the intestines of Lumbrineris inflata (Annelida)

University of British Columbia

Apicomplexans are diverse single-celled eukaryotes that parasitize animals. The most notorious members include those of particular human interest such as the causative agents of malaria, toxoplasmosis, and cryptosporidiosis. While a subset of apicomplexans has been intensively studied from a medical or veterinary perspective, the diversity of remaining groups is underrepresented in existing literature. This lack of data has left the deep relationships among apicomplexan taxa enigmatic and in turn has hindered the revelation of some major evolutionary processes that sparked the apicomplexan radiation. The dearth of understanding surrounding apicomplexan systematics can be addressed in part through the discovery of novel species and the identification of how morphological and molecular characters are distributed across the apicomplexan phylogeny. Some lineages of marine gregarines have retained plesiomorphic characters that offer unique insight into the earliest stages of apicomplexan evolution. The current thesis describes and establishes two novel marine gregarine species isolated from a polychaete hosts (Lumbrineris inflata). Species delimitation and description was based on morphological data acquired using light and electron microscopy and a molecular phylogenetic analysis of 18S small subunit (SSU) rDNA sequences. Paralecudina anankea n. sp. possessed an elongated body, an oval nucleus, and gliding motility. The sister relationship of P. anankea n. sp. with P. polymorpha was robustly supported by molecular phylogenetic analysis (100 MLB, 1.00 BPP) and the SSU rDNA sequences between the two were 12% divergent. In contrast, L. caspera n. sp. was morphologically dissimilar to its closest relative L. longissima and possessed an acorn-shaped body, a distinct mucron, and gliding motility. Molecular phylogenetic analysis recovered L. caspera n. sp. as a sister species to L. longissima with strong support (100 MLB, 1.00 BPP) and their SSU rDNA sequences which were 8% divergent. The generation of additional morphological and molecular traits in gregarines will improve the phylogenetic resolution of the apicomplexan backbone and improve inferences about the evolutionary transition from photosynthetic ancestors to obligate parasites.

Text

2017-01-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/60241

Zoology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/