Exploring the Diversity and Distribution of Neotropical Avian Malaria Parasites – A Molecular Survey from Southeast Brazil

Abstract

Southeast Brazil is a neotropical region composed of a mosaic of different tropical habitats and mountain chains, which allowed for the formation of bird-rich communities with distinct ecological niches. Although this region has the potential to harbor a remarkable variety of avian parasites, there is a lack of information about the diversity of malarial parasites. We used molecular approaches to characterize the lineage diversity of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus in bird communities from three different habitats in southeast Brazil based on the prevalence, richness and composition of lineages. We observed an overall prevalence of 35.3%, with a local prevalence ranging from 17.2% to 54.8%. Moreover, no significant association between prevalence and habitat type could be verified (p>0.05). We identified 89 Plasmodium and 22 Haemoproteus lineages, with 86% of them described for the first time here, including an unusual infection of a non-columbiform host by a Haemoproteus (Haemoproteus) parasite. The composition analyses of the parasite communities showed that the lineage composition from Brazilian savannah and tropical dry forest was similar, but it was different from the lineage composition of Atlantic rainforest, reflecting the greater likeness of the former habitats with respect to seasonality and forest density. No significant effects of habitat type on lineage richness were observed based on GLM analyses. We also found that sites whose samples had a greater diversity of bird species showed a greater diversity of parasite lineages, providing evidence that areas with high bird richness also have high parasite richness. Our findings point to the importance of the neotropical region (southeast Brazil) as a major reservoir of new haemosporidian lineages.

Plasmodium spp. and Haemoproteus spp. infection in birds of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest detected by microscopy and polymerase chain reaction

“…The prevalence of haemosporidians observed in this study (83.19% by microscopy and 81.3% by PCR) can be consi- dered high when compared to other studies conducted in Brazil such as Ribeiro et al (2005) with 39.6%, Fecchio et al (2007Fecchio et al ( , 2011Fecchio et al ( , 2013 with 6.9%, 10.7% and 21% respectively, Belo et al (2009) with 36% in psittacine birds kept in captivity, Lima et al (2010) with 6.1%, Sebaio et al (2010) with 15.8%, Belo et al (2011) with 46% studying birds of cerrado habitat of Brazil, Andery et al (2013) with 13.5% studying birds of prey kept in captivity, Lacorte et al (2013) with 35.3% in birds of Southeast Brazil and Vanstreels et al (2014) with 64%. Among the studies conducted in Brazil, the present records the highest prevalence of Plasmodium spp.…”

Prevalence and diversity of avian malaria parasites in migratory Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger, Laridae, Charadriiformes) from the Brazilian Amazon Basin

“…However, we observed infections by this same lineage in other bird species from different biomes in Brazil across different years, which suggests that the lineage is well established and is transmitted regularly in Brazil. Indeed, this lineage has been described in Brazil in 11 bird species across eight distinct bird families in Southeast Brazil, including biomes such as Cerrado, Atlantic rainforest, and seasonally dry forest (Lacorte et al 2013), and also in a synanthropic bird species (Marzal et al 2011). This lineage received distinct denominations as can be verified in two different databases, GenBank and MalAvi, including lineage HMA-2012 proposed by Archer et al (2011).…”

“…RYNI_RDSM1 and Plasmodium sp. RYNI_RDSM2, had previously been described in different regions of the American continent (Ishak et al 2008;Merino et al 2008;Pagenknopp et al 2008;Levin et al 2013), including a Neotropical region in Southeast Brazil (Lacorte et al 2013) ( Table 1).…”

Highly rearranged mitochondrial genome in Nycteria parasites (Haemosporidia) from bats

“…The diversity of Haemosporidia has been mostly investigated using mitochondrial genes. In particular, the mitochondrial (mt) cytochrome b (cytb) gene is one of the most widely used genetic markers to characterize the diversity of Haemosporidia parasites, and has given rise to many phylogenetic reconstructions to document the evolutionary history of the Haemosporidia (3)(4)(5). All Haemosporidia mt genomes previously sequenced share the same structure, characterized by a tandemly repeated linear element of ∼6 kb containing the three protein-coding genes cytb, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1), and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 3 (cox3) and two highly fragmented (small and large subunits) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes (6).…”