title: Phylogenetic relationships among Eimeria spp. (Apicomplexa, Eimeriidae) infecting rabbits: evolutionary significance of biological and morphological features.
abstract: Monophyly of all 11 valid Eimeria species from rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus Linnaeus, 1758) was revealed based on nuclear 18S rDNA sequence data. This finding implies that these species, which vary considerably in terms of their morphology and biology, diversified on a single host or several closely related species. Phylogenetic analysis divided rabbit Eimeria species into 2 sister lineages, corresponding to the presence/absence of the oocyst residuum. Other morphological or biological traits (oocyst shape and size, presence/absence of oocyst inner structures, pathogenicity, infection site, pre-patent and patent periods, sporulation time, and number of asexual generations) do not explicitly correlate with the phylogeny of rabbit coccidia.
authors.affiliation: Biological Centre, Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic. janaq@paru.cas.cz
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kvicerová
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pakandl
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hypsa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003048:Coccidiosis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004539:Eimeria / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D011817:Rabbits / Q000469:parasitology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S