Comparative gene evolution in haemosporidian (apicomplexa) parasites of birds and mammals

Molecular Biology and Evolution
Diana C Outlaw, Robert E Ricklefs

Abstract

Haemosporidian parasites of birds and mammals reproduce asexually inside nucleated and nonnucleated host erythrocytes, respectively. Because of these different parasite environments and because bird parasites are paraphyletic, we evaluated whether patterns of parasite molecular evolution differ between host groups. We compared two mitochondrial (mt) genes and one apicoplast gene across mammal Plasmodium, bird Plasmodium, and bird Parahaemoproteus. Using a molecular phylogenetic approach, we show that the parasite mt cytochrome b (cyt b), mt cytochrome oxidase I (COI), and the apicoplast caseinolytic protease C (ClpC) exhibit similar levels of sequence divergence, yet each gene tree presents a strikingly different pattern of internal versus terminal branch lengths. In cyt b, the ratio of nonsynonymous (NS)-to-synonymous substitutions (d(N)/d(S)) is markedly elevated along the internal branch linking mammalian and avian parasites despite the sister relationship between mammal and bird Plasmodium. This is not the case for either COI or ClpC. When NS substitutions are excluded from the parasite cyt b alignment, the resulting phylogenetic tree resembles that of COI (both with and without NS substitutions). The high d(N)/d(S) ratio i...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 8, 2013·Trends in Parasitology·Staffan BenschRobert E Ricklefs
Jul 7, 2011·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Diana C Outlaw, Robert E Ricklefs
May 24, 2012·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Diego Santiago-AlarconHinrich Martin Schaefer
Jul 10, 2010·Science·Robert E Ricklefs, Diana C Outlaw
Oct 2, 2014·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Robert E RicklefsSteven Latta
Sep 17, 2013·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·I I LevinP G Parker
Dec 4, 2014·Evolutionary Applications·Ryan J HarriganThomas B Smith
Sep 15, 2015·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Janus BornerThorsten Burmester
Dec 27, 2012·Experimental Parasitology·Vaidas PalinauskasGediminas Valkiūnas
Oct 30, 2014·Parasitology·Robert K OutlawDiana C Outlaw
Aug 17, 2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Gregory KaradjianLinda Duval
Oct 5, 2016·The Journal of Parasitology·V Woody Walstrom, Diana C Outlaw
Nov 11, 2017·Molecular Biology and Evolution·M Andreína PachecoAnanias A Escalante
Dec 29, 2017·Parasitology Research·Jamie D SmithMaarten J Vonhof
Dec 26, 2016·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Miranda R BertramGabriel L Hamer

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