Nematode epibionts on skin of the Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris

Abstract

A survey for the presence of nematodes on the skin of the native Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris from Crystal River, Florida was conducted during annual manatee health assessments. A putative isolate of Cutidiplogaster manati (Diplogastridae) and two other nematodes belonging to the same family were recovered from mid-dorsal tail skin-scrapings from all sampled winter-collected healthy wild adult manatees during two successive years (2018–2019). Qualitative abundance estimates of these three species of diplogastrid nematodes suggest that an average wild Florida manatee adult might possess between 30,000 and 120,000 nematodes on its tail dorsum and that the entire body dorsum including the tail might possess 160,000–640,000 nematodes in roughly equal ratios. Attempts to culture these nematodes on a variety of different culture media were unsuccessful but examination of the mouth (stomatal) morphology suggests specialized feeding on microbes such as diatoms or predation on other nematodes. No skin lesions were observed during the 2018–2019 samplings suggesting that under normal conditions these nematodes are highly specialized free-living epibionts of the skin that are tightly bound to this niche and horizontally transferred between individual manatees in an analogous fashion to human skin mites (Demodex folliculorum and D. brevis). Molecular phylogenetic inferences using sequences of near full length SSU and D2–D3 expansion segments of LSU rRNA genes revealed a putative new morphospecies in Cutidiplogaster sister to C. manati that was monophyletic with several named Mononchoides species, and another putative new morphospecies that formed a clade with several undescribed species similar in appearance to Mononchoides as well as Tylopharyx, Eudiplogasterium, Paroigolaimella and Sachsia.

Molecular diversity and relationships of fig associated nematodes from South Africa

“…l . especially in mixed populations of fig-associated nematodes [ 3 , 27 , 29 ]. For example, only one aphelenchoidid, S .…”

“…Compared sequences and their GenBank accession numbers are shown in Figs 2 – 7 . The compared sequences were selected according to previous family-wide analyses, i.e., Kanzaki et al [ 27 ] and Davies et al [ 3 ] for Aphelenchoididae and Wöhr et al [ 17 ], Zeng et al [ 28 ] and Gonzalez et al [ 29 ] for Diplogastridae.…”

What is the difference between marine and limnetic‐terrestrial associations of nematodes with invertebrates?

“…C. manati is distinguished by a remarkably long tail which is capable of coiling spirally and functions for anchoring (Diplogastridae as other Rhabditia lack attachable caudal glands in the tail). Later, this and 2 other nematode species belonging to the same family were found on the skin of the Florida manatee (Gonzalez et al 2021).…”

“…Later, this and 2 other nematode species belonging to the same family were found on the skin of the Florida manatee (Gonzalez et al . 2021).…”

Soil-Borne Nematodes: Impact in Agriculture and Livestock and Sustainable Strategies of Prevention and Control with Special Reference to the Use of Nematode Natural Enemies

“…Nematodes can be found in decomposed organic matter in soil and plant roots and in other organic-rich substrates [2,3]. In addition to terrestrial environments, nematodes have adapted to most ecosystems, including aquifer environments, i.e., freshwater [4] and marine systems [5,6] and even the most extreme conditions where survival is difficult, i.e., in the polar regions of the world [7] and extremely high-temperature conditions [8]. Soil nematodes have a wide range of relationships with microorganisms of other species.…”