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Host specificity in avian blood parasites: a study of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus mitochondrial DNA amplified from birds

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Author

Summary, in English

A fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of avian malaria (genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium) was amplified from blood samples of 12 species of passerine birds from the genera Acrocephalus, Phylloscopus and Parus. By sequencing 478 nucleotides of the obtained fragments, we found 17 different mitocholdrial haplotypes of Haemoproteus or Plasmodium among the 12 bird species investigated. Only one out of the: 17 haplotypes was found in more than one host species, this exception being a haplotype detected in both blue tits (Parus caeruleus) and great tits (Parus major). The phylogenetic tree which was constructed grouped the sequences into two clades, most probably representing Haemoproteus and Plasmodium, respectively. We found two to four different parasite mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes in four bird species. The phylogenetic tree obtained from the mtDNA of the parasites matched the phylogenetic tree of the bird hosts poorly For example, the two tit species and the willow warbler (Phylloscopus troclilus) carried parasites differing by only 0.6% sequence divergence, suggesting that Haemoproteus shift both between species within the same genus and also between species in different families. Hence, host shifts seem to have occurred repeatedly in this parasite-host system. We discuss this in terms of the possilble evolutionary consequences for these bird species.

Publishing year

2000

Language

English

Pages

1583-1589

Publication/Series

Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences

Volume

267

Issue

1452

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Topic

  • Biological Sciences
  • Ecology

Status

Published

Project

  • Malaria in birds

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1471-2954