Timing and number of colonizations but not diversification rates affect diversity patterns in hemosporidian lineages on a remote oceanic archipelago.
Parasite diversity on remote oceanic archipelagos is determined by the number and timing of colonizations and by in situ diversification rate. In this study, we compare intra-archipelago diversity of two hemosporidian parasite genera, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon, infecting birds of the Mascarene archipelago. Despite the generally higher vagility of Plasmodium parasites, we report a diversity of Plasmodium cytochrome b haplotypes in the archipelago much lower than that of Leucocytozoon. Using phylogenetic data, we find that this difference in diversity is consistent with differences in the timing and number of colonizations, while rates of diversification do not vary significantly between the two genera. The prominence of immigration history in explaining current diversity patterns highlights the importance of historical contingencies in driving disparate biogeographic patterns in potentially harmful blood parasites infecting island birds.
Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique, Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 5174-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paul Sabatier, Ecole Nationale de Formation Agronomique, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse Cédex 9, France.
Josselin
J
Cornuault
Ben H
BH
Warren
Joris A M
JA
Bertrand
Borja
B
Milá
Christophe
C
Thébaud
Philipp
P
Heeb
D044822:Biodiversity; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D005843:Geography; D016787:Haemosporida / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D062312:Islands; D010802:Phylogeny; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
D045303:Cytochromes b