Hidden in plain sight: Cryptic and endemic malaria parasites in North American white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus )
| Autor: | Heidi Brightman, Lisa H. Ware, Ken Ferebee, Emily K. Latch, Priscilla H. Joyner, Michael J. Yabsley, J. J. Schall, Tavis Forrester, Ellen S. Martinsen, Timothy F. Walsh, Robert C. Fleischer, Susan L. Perkins, Nancy Rotzel McInerney, William J. McShea |
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| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Plasmodium Old World Zoology Parasitemia Odocoileus 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Host Specificity 03 medical and health sciences Anopheles parasitic diseases medicine Animals Phylogeny Research Articles Anopheles punctipennis Multidisciplinary Malaria parasites biology Ecology Deer SciAdv r-articles Plasmodium odocoilei haemosporidians biology.organism_classification medicine.disease United States Insect Vectors Malaria 3. Good health Phylogeography 030104 developmental biology Parasitology Research Article |
| Zdroj: | Science Advances |
| ISSN: | 2375-2548 |
| DOI: | 10.1126/sciadv.1501486 |
| Popis: | Findings suggest that North American white-tailed deer commonly harbor cryptic infection with the only known New World mammalian Plasmodium. Malaria parasites of the genus Plasmodium are diverse in mammal hosts, infecting five mammalian orders in the Old World, but were long considered absent from the diverse deer family (Cervidae) and from New World mammals. There was a description of a Plasmodium parasite infecting a single splenectomized white-tailed deer (WTD; Odocoileus virginianus) in 1967 but none have been reported since, which has proven a challenge to our understanding of malaria parasite biogeography. Using both microscopy and polymerase chain reaction, we screened a large sample of native and captive ungulate species from across the United States for malaria parasites. We found a surprisingly high prevalence (up to 25%) and extremely low parasitemia of Plasmodium parasites in WTD throughout the eastern United States. We did not detect infections in the other ungulate species nor in western WTD. We also isolated the parasites from the mosquito Anopheles punctipennis. Morphologically, the parasites resemble the parasite described in 1967, Plasmodium odocoilei. Our analysis of the cytochrome b gene revealed two divergent Plasmodium clades in WTD representative of species that likely diverged 2.3 to 6 million years ago, concurrent with the arrival of the WTD ancestor into North America across Beringia. Multigene phylogenetic analysis placed these clades within the larger malaria parasite clade. We document Plasmodium parasites to be common in WTD, endemic to the New World, and as the only known malaria parasites from deer (Cervidae). These findings reshape our knowledge of the phylogeography of the malaria parasites and suggest that other mammal taxa may harbor infection by endemic and occult malaria parasites. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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