Author:
Lima Luciana,Espinosa-Álvarez Oneida,Hamilton Patrick B,Neves Luis,Takata Carmen SA,Campaner Marta,Attias Márcia,de Souza Wanderley,Camargo Erney P,Teixeira Marta MG
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Bat trypanosomes have been implicated in the evolutionary history of the T. cruzi clade, which comprises species from a wide geographic and host range in South America, Africa and Europe, including bat-restricted species and the generalist agents of human American trypanosomosis T. cruzi and T. rangeli.
Methods
Trypanosomes from bats (Rhinolophus landeri and Hipposideros caffer) captured in Mozambique, southeast Africa, were isolated by hemoculture. Barcoding was carried out through the V7V8 region of Small Subunit (SSU) rRNA and Fluorescent Fragment Length barcoding (FFLB). Phylogenetic inferences were based on SSU rRNA, glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (gGAPDH) and Spliced Leader (SL) genes. Morphological characterization included light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy.
Results
New trypanosomes from bats clustered together forming a clade basal to a larger assemblage called the T. cruzi clade. Barcoding, phylogenetic analyses and genetic distances based on SSU rRNA and gGAPDH supported these trypanosomes as a new species, which we named Trypanosoma livingstonei n. sp. The large and highly polymorphic SL gene repeats of this species showed a copy of the 5S ribosomal RNA into the intergenic region. Unique morphological (large and broad blood trypomastigotes compatible to species of the subgenus Megatrypanum and cultures showing highly pleomorphic epimastigotes and long and slender trypomastigotes) and ultrastructural (cytostome and reservosomes) features and growth behaviour (when co-cultivated with HeLa cells at 37°C differentiated into trypomastigotes resembling the blood forms and do not invaded the cells) complemented the description of this species.
Conclusion
Phylogenetic inferences supported the hypothesis that Trypanosoma livingstonei n. sp. diverged from a common ancestral bat trypanosome that evolved exclusively in Chiroptera or switched at independent opportunities to mammals of several orders forming the clade T. cruzi, hence, providing further support for the bat seeding hypothesis to explain the origin of T. cruzi and T. rangeli.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Parasitology
Reference60 articles.
1. Hoare CA: The trypanosomes of mammals: a zoological monograph. 1972, Oxford, England: Blackwell Scientific Publishing
2. Baker JR: First European record of Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) sp. of bats. Nat New Biol. 1973, 241: 96-10.1038/newbio241096a0.
3. Marinkelle CJ: The biology of the trypanosomes of bats. Biology of the Kinetoplastida. Edited by: Lumdsen WHR, Evans DA. 1976, New York: Academic, 175-216.
4. Marinkelle CJ: Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) megachiropterum sp. n. from the flying fox, Pteropus tonganus, Quoy, Gaimard. J Protozool. 1979, 26: 352-353.
5. Gardner RA, Molyneux DH: Schizotrypanum in British bats. Parasitology. 1988, 97: 43-50. 10.1017/S0031182000066725.