Species diversity of Plagiorchis Lühe, 1899 (Digenea: Plagiorchiidae) in lymnaeid snails from freshwater ecosystems in central Europe revealed by molecules and morphology.
Larval stages of Plagiorchis spp. are both ubiquitous and ecologically important parasites in snail populations of freshwater ecosystems in Europe. However, difficulties in distinguishing the morphologically similar cercariae used for species identification, may lead to underestimation of species diversity. In this study, 38 isolates of Plagiorchis spp. infecting two lymnaeid snails, Lymnaea stagnalis (L.) and Radix auricularia (L.), in five central European freshwater ecosystems were subjected to morphological and molecular assessment. Five morphologically homogeneous and genetically distinct lineages of Plagiorchis spp. were identified via matching molecular data for the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) gene with detailed morphological and morphometric data of the cercariae. Comparative sequence analysis using partial 28S rDNA and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences revealed that three distinct cox1 lineages are conspecific with Plagiorchis elegans (Rudolphi, 1802), P. maculosus (Rudolphi, 1802) and P. koreanus Ogata, 1938, respectively, whereas the lineage identified based on cercarial morphology as P. neomidis Brendow, 1970 plus a single isolate that could not be assigned to a described species, did not match any of the available sequences for Plagiorchis spp. A key to the cercariae of Plagiorchis spp. parasitising lymnaeid populations in central Europe is provided to facilitate identification.
Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic, Jana.Zikmundova@seznam.cz.
Jana
J
Zikmundová
Simona
S
Georgieva
Anna
A
Faltýnková
Miroslava
M
Soldánová
Aneta
A
Kostadinova
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D058487:Cercaria / Q000166:cytology; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D005060:Europe; D005618:Fresh Water; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012339:RNA, Ribosomal, 28S / Q000235:genetics; D012340:RNA, Ribosomal, 5.8S / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012908:Snails / Q000469:parasitology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014200:Trematoda / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics
D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D012339:RNA, Ribosomal, 28S; D012340:RNA, Ribosomal, 5.8S; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV