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Global phylogeographic limits of Hawaii's avian malaria

Author

  • JS Beadell
  • F Ishtiaq
  • R Covas
  • M Melo
  • BH Warren
  • CT Atkinson
  • Staffan Bensch
  • GR Graves
  • YV Jhala
  • MA Peirce
  • AR Rahmani
  • DM Fonseca
  • RC Fleischer

Summary, in English

The introduction of avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) to Hawaii has provided a model system for studying the influence of exotic disease on naive host populations. Little is known, however, about the origin or the genetic variation of Hawaii's malaria and traditional classification methods have confounded attempts to place the parasite within a global ecological and evolutionary context. Using fragments of the parasite mitochondrial gene cytochrome b and the nuclear gene dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase obtained from a global survey of greater than 13 000 avian samples, we show that Hawaii's avian malaria, which can cause high mortality and is a major limiting factor for many species of native passerines, represents just one of the numerous lineages composing the morphological parasite species. The single parasite lineage detected in Hawaii exhibits a broad host distribution worldwide and is dominant on several other remote oceanic islands, including Bermuda and Moorea, French Polynesia. The rarity of this lineage in the continental New World and the restriction of closely related lineages to the Old World suggest limitations to the transmission of reproductively isolated parasite groups within the morphological species.

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

2935-2944

Publication/Series

Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences

Volume

273

Issue

1604

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Project

  • Malaria in birds

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1471-2954