Molecular and Histopathological Data on Levisunguis subaequalis Curran, Overstreet, Collins & Benz, 2014 (Pentastomida: Eupentastomida: Porocephalida: Porocephaloidea: Sebekidae: Sebekinae) from Gambusia affinis in Alabama, USA.

Molecular and Histopathological Data on Levisunguis subaequalis Curran, Overstreet, Collins & Benz, 2014 (Pentastomida: Eupentastomida: Porocephalida: Porocephaloidea: Sebekidae: Sebekinae) from Gambusia affinis in Alabama, USA. J Parasitol. 2019 Dec;105(6):827-839 Authors: Woodyard ET, Stilwell JM, Camus AC, Rosser TG Abstract Levisunguis subaequalis Curran, Overstreet, Collins & Benz, 2014 , was recently described from the lungs of the definitive hosts, softshell turtles, Apalone ferox (Schneider, 1783), and Apalone spinifera aspera (Agassiz, 1857) as well as the viscera of an intermediate host, the western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis (Baird and Girard, 1853). However, the original account lacked molecular data. Furthermore, histological examination of infected host tissues in the original account of L. subaequalis did not reveal any pathological changes in the intermediate host. The present work provides a robust morphological description of the nymph and novel molecular data from the 18S and 28S ribosomal gene regions and the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) mitochondrial gene. Phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood analysis with concatenated sequence data from these 3 regions, as well as each region individually, placed the turtle pentastomid L. subaequalis as a sister clade to the crocodilian pentastomids of the genus Sebekia Sambon, 1922. While only concatenated phylogenetic analys...
Source: The Journal of Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Tags: J Parasitol Source Type: research