Nematopsis temporariae (Gregarinasina, Apicomplexa, Alveolata) is an intracellular infectious agent of tadpole livers.
Amphibians are in decline as a result of habitat destruction, climate change and infectious diseases. Tadpoles are thought susceptible to infections because they are dependent on only an innate immune system (e.g. macrophages). This is because the frog adaptive immune system does not function until later stages of their life cycle. In 1920, Nöller described a putative infectious agent of tadpoles named Nematopsis temporariae, which he putatively assigned to gregarine protists (Apicomplexa). Here, we identify a gregarine infection of tadpoles using both microscopy and ribosomal DNA sequencing of three different frog species (Rana temporaria, R. dalmatina, and Hyla arborea). We show that this protist lineage belongs to the subclass Gregarinasina Dufour 1828 and is regularly present in macrophages located in liver sinusoids of tadpoles, confirming the only known case of a gregarine infection of a vertebrate.
Biosciences, University of Exeter, Geoffrey Pope Building, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK.
Aurélie
A
Chambouvet
Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, Brno, 611 37, Czech Republic.
Andrea
A
Valigurová
National Council for Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), Brazil.
Lara M
LM
Pinheiro
Biosciences, University of Exeter, Geoffrey Pope Building, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK.|Integrated Microbial Biodiversity Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, Canada.
Thomas A
TA
Richards
Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Parasitology, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice, 370 05, Czech Republic.
Miloslav
M
Jirků