Ultrastructural study on a novel microsporidian, Endoreticulatus eriocheir sp. nov. (Microsporidia, Encephalitozoonidae), parasite of Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis (Crustacea, Decapoda)

Single and multi-gene phylogeny ofHepatospora(Microsporidia) – a generalist pathogen of farmed and wild crustacean hosts

“…In the present study, we have shown that infection with the parasite of the hepatopancreas of edible crabs displays a similar pathology to that caused by infection with H. eriocheir in Chinese mitten crabs from London and from China (Wang and Chen, 2007;Ding et al 2016), and to the infection described in pea crabs by Longshaw et al (2012). These parasites also appear to share a broadly similar morphological development within host gut epithelial cells albeit with some distinctive differences in karyo-status (H. eriocheir is unikaryotic whereas the pea crab and edible crab parasites are dikaryotic) and some minor differences in polar tube-coiling patterns (summarized in Table 1).…”

“…It has been defined as a genus that encompasses microsporidia with infective life stages that develop within the hepatopancreas of marine and brackish water hosts. With the use of rDNA-based phylogenetic analyses, Stentiford et al (2011) renamed and updated the description of Endoreticulatus eriocheir (Wang and Chen, 2007) to form the type species H. eriocheir. Unlike Wang and Chen who isolated their spores from native Chinese mitten crabs, the spores in the Stentiford et al (2011) study were isolated from invasive Chinese mitten crabs (E. sinensis) which had been caught in the Thames estuary, UK.…”

Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei sp. nov. (Microsporida: Enterocytozoonidae), a parasite of the black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon (Decapoda: Penaeidae): Fine structure and phylogenetic relationships

“…Few microsporidians have been shown to infect only the tubule epithelial cells of the crustacean hepatopancreas (Anderson et al, 1989;Hudson et al, 2001;Wang and Chen, 2007;. The publications by Stentiford et al describe such infections of two European crab species by a microsporidians placed in a new genus of microsporidia (Enterospora) within the family Enterocytozoonidae because of the intranuclear location of the plasmodia.…”

Microsporidiosis in the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus from southeast Florida, USA

“…The phylum Microsporidia is currently classified within the kingdom Fungi, but their taxonomic status is under debate (Hibbett et al 2007). Microsporidiosis in decapod crustaceans is caused by several genera of parasitic microsporidia, including Abelspora, Agmasoma, Ameson, Endoreticulatus, Gurleya, Inodosporus, Nadelspora, Nosema, Ormieresia, Pleistophora and Thelohania (Sprague & Couch 1971, Vivarès et al 1977, Azevedo 1987, Olson et al 1994, Lightner 1996, Azevedo et al 2000, Wang & Chen 2007. Microsporidia usually infect the skeletal musculature, causing mechanical damage and altering the biochemical composition of the host tissue (Findley et al 1981).…”