TY - JOUR
T1 - High diversity of West African bat malaria parasites and a tight link with rodent Plasmodium taxa
AU - Schaer, Juliane
AU - Perkins, Susan L.
AU - Decher, Jan
AU - Leendertz, Fabian H.
AU - Fahr, Jakob
AU - Weber, Natalie
AU - Matuschewski, Kai
PY - 2013/10/22
Y1 - 2013/10/22
N2 - As the only volant mammals, bats are captivating for their high taxonomic diversity, for their vital roles in ecosystems - particularly as pollinators and insectivores - and, more recently, for their important roles in the maintenance and transmission of zoonotic viral diseases. Genome sequences have identified evidence for a striking expansion of and positive selection in gene families associated with immunity. Bats have also been known to be hosts of malaria parasites for over a century, and as hosts, they possess perhaps the most phylogenetically diverse set of hemosporidian genera and species. To provide a molecular framework for the study of these parasites, we surveyed bats in three remote areas of the Upper Guinean forest ecosystem. We detected four distinct genera of hemosporidian parasites: Plasmodium, Polychromophilus, Nycteria, and Hepatocystis. Intriguingly, the two species of Plasmodium in bats fall within the clade of rodent malaria parasites, indicative of multiple host switches across mammalian orders. We show that Nycteria species form a very distinct phylogenetic group and that Hepatocystis parasites display an unusually high diversity and prevalence in epauletted fruit bats. The diversity and high prevalence of novel lineages of chiropteran hemosporidians underscore the exceptional position of bats among all other mammalian hosts of hemosporidian parasites and support hypotheses of pathogen tolerance consistent with the exceptional immunology of bats.
AB - As the only volant mammals, bats are captivating for their high taxonomic diversity, for their vital roles in ecosystems - particularly as pollinators and insectivores - and, more recently, for their important roles in the maintenance and transmission of zoonotic viral diseases. Genome sequences have identified evidence for a striking expansion of and positive selection in gene families associated with immunity. Bats have also been known to be hosts of malaria parasites for over a century, and as hosts, they possess perhaps the most phylogenetically diverse set of hemosporidian genera and species. To provide a molecular framework for the study of these parasites, we surveyed bats in three remote areas of the Upper Guinean forest ecosystem. We detected four distinct genera of hemosporidian parasites: Plasmodium, Polychromophilus, Nycteria, and Hepatocystis. Intriguingly, the two species of Plasmodium in bats fall within the clade of rodent malaria parasites, indicative of multiple host switches across mammalian orders. We show that Nycteria species form a very distinct phylogenetic group and that Hepatocystis parasites display an unusually high diversity and prevalence in epauletted fruit bats. The diversity and high prevalence of novel lineages of chiropteran hemosporidians underscore the exceptional position of bats among all other mammalian hosts of hemosporidian parasites and support hypotheses of pathogen tolerance consistent with the exceptional immunology of bats.
KW - Haemosporida
KW - Chiroptera
KW - vector-borne disease
KW - molecular phylogeny
KW - host-pathogen coevolution
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84886415555&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1311016110
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1311016110
M3 - Article
C2 - 24101466
AN - SCOPUS:84886415555
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 110
SP - 17415
EP - 17419
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 43
ER -