Phylogeny of Hepatocystis parasites of Australian flying foxes reveals distinct parasite clade

Juliane Schaer*, Lee McMichael, Anita N. Gordon, Daniel Russell, Kai Matuschewski, Susan L. Perkins, Hume Field, Michelle Power

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)
    72 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Hepatocystis parasites are close relatives of mammalian Plasmodium species and infect a range of primates and bats. Here, we present the phylogenetic relationships of Hepatocystis parasites of three Australian flying fox species. Multilocus phylogenetic analysis revealed that Hepatocystis parasites of Pteropus species from Australia and Asia form a distinct clade that is sister to all other Hepatocystis parasites of primates and bats from Africa and Asia. No patterns of host specificity were recovered within the Pteropus-specific parasite clade and the Hepatocystis sequences from all three Australian host species sampled fell into two divergent clades.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)207-212
    Number of pages6
    JournalInternational Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife
    Volume7
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Aug 2018

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright the Author(s) 2018. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

    Keywords

    • Haemosporida
    • Hepatocystis
    • chiroptera
    • malaria
    • Pteropus
    • Australia

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