Haemoparasites of the pied flycatcher: inter-population variation in the prevalence and community composition

Parasitology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 145 (7) ◽  
pp. 912-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Dubiec ◽  
Edyta Podmokła ◽  
Iga Harnist ◽  
Tomasz D. Mazgajski
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Population Variation ◽  
Pied Flycatcher ◽  
Blood Parasites ◽  
Avian Host ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Host Sex ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Host Life

AbstractThe prevalence and community composition of haemoparasites can substantially differ among avian host populations, which may lead to different selection pressures. Therefore, information about these parameters is crucial for understanding, e.g. the inter-population variation in host life history traits. Here, we molecularly screened a population of a long-distance migrant, the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca, from central Poland for the presence of three genera of blood parasites: Haemoproteus, Plasmodium and Trypanosoma. The infection rate in this population was the highest for haemosporidians (86·8%) and one of the highest for trypanosomes (39·7%) among the thus far screened breeding populations of this species. The haemosporidian community was composed of six Haemoproteus/Plasmodium lineages, and the trypanosome community – 4 species and a parasite assigned to genus level. Trypanosomes were dominated by T. culicavium, a recently described species, corroborating the prediction that insectivorous songbirds are vertebrate hosts of this parasite. Host sex and age did not explain variation in infection incidence except for the higher trypanosome infection rates in males. A comparison of the study population with three other breeding populations previously screened molecularly for haemosporidians showed some geographic differences. This study confirms the importance of examining local parasite communities across a host distribution range.

scholarly journals Blood parasites in vectors reveal a united blackfly community in the upper canopy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nayden Chakarov ◽  
Helge Kampen ◽  
Anja Wiegmann ◽  
Doreen Werner ◽  
Staffan Bensch
Keyword(s):  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Blood Parasites ◽  
Avian Host ◽  
Haemosporidian Parasite ◽  
Host Group ◽  
Haemosporidian Parasites ◽  
Blood Sucking ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Host Parasite

Abstract Background: The behaviour of blood-sucking arthropods is a crucial determinant of blood protozoan distribution and hence of host-parasite coevolution, but it is very challenging to study in the wild. The molecular identification of parasite lineages in vectors can be a useful key to understand the behaviour and transmission patterns realised by these vectors. Methods: In this study, we collected blackflies around nests of three raptor species in the upper forest canopy in central Europe and examined the presence of vertebrate DNA and haemosporidian parasites in them. We molecularly analysed 156 blackfly individuals, their vertebrate blood meals, and the haemosporidian parasite lineages they carried. Results: We identified nine species of Simulium blackflies, largely belonging to the subgenera Nevermannia and Eusimulium. Only 1% of the collected specimens was visibly engorged, and only 4% contained remains of host DNA. However, in 29% of the blackflies Leucocytozoon lineages were identified, which is evidence of a previous blood meal on an avian host. Based on the known vertebrate hosts of the recorded Leucocytozoon lineages, we can infer that large and/or abundant birds, such as thrushes, crows, pigeons, birds of prey, owls and tits are the main targets of ornithophilic blackflies in the canopy. Blackfly species contained similar proportions of host group-specific parasite lineages and thus do not appear to be associated with particular host groups. Conclusions: The Leucocytozoon clade infecting thrushes, crows, and pigeons present in most represented blackfly species suggests a lack of association between hosts and blackflies, which can increase the probability of host switches of blood parasites. However, the composition of the simuliid species differed between nests of common buzzards, goshawks and red kites. This segregation can be explained by coinciding habitat preferences between host and vector, and may lead to the fast speciation of Leucocytozoon parasites. Thus, subtle ecological preferences and lack of host preference of vectors in the canopy may enable both parasite diversification and host switches, and enforce a habitat-dependent evolution of avian malaria parasites and related haemosporidia.

scholarly journals On the evolution and molecular epidemiology of the potyvirus Papaya ringspot virus

2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (10) ◽  
pp. 2575-2585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion F. Bateson ◽  
Rosemarie E. Lines ◽  
Peter Revill ◽  
Worawan Chaleeprom ◽  
Cuong V. Ha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Epidemiology ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Ringspot Virus ◽  
Population Variation ◽  
Watermelon Mosaic Virus ◽  
Papaya Ringspot Virus ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Tropics

The potyvirus Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) is found throughout the tropics and subtropics. Its P biotype is a devastating pathogen of papaya crops and its W biotype of cucurbits. PRSV-P is thought to arise by mutation from PRSV-W. However, the relative impact of mutation and movement on the structure of PRSV populations is not well characterized. To investigate this, we have determined the coat protein sequences of isolates of both biotypes of PRSV from Vietnam (50), Thailand (13), India (1) and the Philippines (1), and analysed them together with 28 PRSV sequences already published, so that we can better understand the molecular epidemiology and evolution of PRSV. In Thailand, variation was greater among PRSV-W isolates (mean nucleotide divergence 7·6%) than PRSV-P isolates (mean 2·6%), but in Vietnamese populations the P and W biotypes were more but similarly diverse. Phylogenetic analyses of PRSV also involving its closest known relative, Moroccan watermelon mosaic virus, indicate that PRSV may have originated in Asia, particularly in the Indian subcontinent, as PRSV populations there are most diverse and hence have probably been present longest. Our analyses show that mutation, together with local and long-distance movement, contributes to population variation, and also confirms an earlier conclusion that populations of the PRSV-P biotype have evolved on several occasions from PRSV-W populations.

scholarly journals Pro-inflammatory immune response is linked to wintering habitat in a migratory shorebird

The Auk ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
José M Abad-Gómez ◽  
Auxiliadora Villegas ◽  
Jorge S Gutiérrez ◽  
Manuel Parejo ◽  
Juan G Navedo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Blood Parasites ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Migratory Shorebirds ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
Wintering Habitat ◽  
Inflammatory Immune Response

Abstract Migratory shorebirds (Charadrii) show a strong dichotomy in their breeding and wintering strategies: Arctic-breeding species typically spend the wintering season in marine habitats, while more southerly breeding species tend to do so in freshwater habitats where pathogens and parasites, particularly vector-borne blood parasites, are generally more abundant. Thus, it has been hypothesized that the former group may reduce their investment in immunity, but experimental data supporting this hypothesis are lacking. Moreover, whether this contrasting habitat selection can shape investments in immunocompetence among populations within a species is uncertain. We experimentally tested the hypothesis that there is a significant association between habitat occupancy and the strength of a pro-inflammatory immune response in the Dunlin (Calidris alpina), a widely distributed long-distance migratory shorebird that breeds in (sub-)arctic areas and winters mainly, but not exclusively, in coastal habitats. Overwintering Dunlins occupying inland freshwater and marine habitats at a similar latitude were captured and acclimated under identical conditions in outdoor aviaries. After an acclimation period, they were challenged with phytohemagglutinin to assess the pro-inflammatory immune response and its associated energetic costs, measured by basal metabolic rate (BMR) and body mass changes. We found that freshwater Dunlins exhibited a higher (63%) pro-inflammatory immune response than marine Dunlins. Although this difference did not involve significant BMR changes, the time course of body mass response differed between freshwater and marine individuals. Our findings point to the existence of different pro-inflammatory immune responses and body mass adjustments associated with the wintering habitat. These intraspecific differences are likely due to population adaptation rather than phenotypic plasticity, where not only disease risk but also physiological adaptations to different salinity levels could play an important role.

scholarly journals Migratory connectivity and population-specific migration routes in a long-distance migratory bird

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1778) ◽  
pp. 20132897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Trierweiler ◽  
Raymond H. G. Klaassen ◽  
Rudi H. Drent ◽  
Klaus-Michael Exo ◽  
Jan Komdeur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Migratory Bird ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Migratory Connectivity ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Migration System ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Wintering Areas

Knowledge about migratory connectivity, the degree to which individuals from the same breeding site migrate to the same wintering site, is essential to understand processes affecting populations of migrants throughout the annual cycle. Here, we study the migration system of a long-distance migratory bird, the Montagu's harrier Circus pygargus , by tracking individuals from different breeding populations throughout northern Europe. We identified three main migration routes towards wintering areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Wintering areas and migration routes of different breeding populations overlapped, a pattern best described by ‘weak (diffuse) connectivity’. Migratory performance, i.e. timing, duration, distance and speed of migration, was surprisingly similar for the three routes despite differences in habitat characteristics. This study provides, to our knowledge, a first comprehensive overview of the migration system of a Palaearctic-African long-distance migrant. We emphasize the importance of spatial scale (e.g. distances between breeding populations) in defining patterns of connectivity and suggest that knowledge about fundamental aspects determining distribution patterns, such as the among-individual variation in mean migration directions, is required to ultimately understand migratory connectivity. Furthermore, we stress that for conservation purposes it is pivotal to consider wintering areas as well as migration routes and in particular stopover sites.

scholarly journals Continent-wide tracking to determine migratory connectivity and tropical habitat associations of a declining aerial insectivore

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1749) ◽  
pp. 4901-4906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin C. Fraser ◽  
Bridget J. M. Stutchbury ◽  
Cassandra Silverio ◽  
Patrick M. Kramer ◽  
John Barrow ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
Light Level ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Habitat Associations ◽  
Migratory Connectivity ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Breeding Populations

North American birds that feed on flying insects are experiencing steep population declines, particularly long-distance migratory populations in the northern breeding range. We determine, for the first time, the level of migratory connectivity across the range of a songbird using direct tracking of individuals, and test whether declining northern populations have higher exposure to agricultural landscapes at their non-breeding grounds in South America. We used light-level geolocators to track purple martins, Progne subis , originating from North American breeding populations, coast-to-coast ( n = 95 individuals). We show that breeding populations of the eastern subspecies, P. s. subis , that are separated by ca . 2000 km, nevertheless have almost completely overlapping non-breeding ranges in Brazil. Most (76%) P. s. subis overwintered in northern Brazil near the Amazon River, not in the agricultural landscape of southern Brazil. Individual non-breeding sites had an average of 91 per cent forest and only 4 per cent agricultural ground cover within a 50 km radius, and birds originating from declining northern breeding populations were not more exposed to agricultural landscapes than stable southern breeding populations. Our results show that differences in wintering location and habitat do not explain recent trends in breeding population declines in this species, and instead northern populations may be constrained in their ability to respond to climate change.

Morpho-phenological diversity among Tunisian natural populations of Brachypodium hybridum

2014 ◽  
Vol 153 (6) ◽  
pp. 1006-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. NEJI ◽  
F. GEUNA ◽  
W. TAAMALLI ◽  
Y. IBRAHIM ◽  
M. SMIDA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Geographic Distribution ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Average Length ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Mantel Test ◽  
Population Variation ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Temperate Cereal

SUMMARYBrachypodium hybridum belongs to the Poaceae grass subfamily. It has a close genetic relationship with temperate cereal crops, which means that it can be used as a model for temperate cereal and grass crops. In order to improve knowledge on the genetic diversity of this species, 145 lines of B. hybridum representative of nine populations and all the ecoregions of Tunisia were characterized on the basis of 18 morpho-phenologic features. The results show a considerable variation between populations and ecoregions in all traits studied. Variation was relatively higher for reproductive than vegetative traits. The majority of traits showed very low to high heritability with low border value for average length of spikelet (ALS) and an average value of 0·64. It is noticeable that high values of heritability were observed for most vegetative descriptors, with low values for reproductive ones. Differentiation between populations (QST) varied from 0·02 for ALS to 0·78 for average length of leaves with a mean value across traits of 0·4, which confirms the wide intra-population variation in Tunisian natural population of B. hybridum. Pairwise QST showed that the greatest differentiation among populations was registered between Ain Drahem and Jbel Zaghouan and the smallest between Haouria and Raoued. Overall, the Ain Draham population showed the largest differentiation from the rest of the populations. To infer the effect of geographic distribution of the species, a Mantel test was applied between observed pairwise differentiation and geographic distance between populations and between ecoregions: the results show a positive, but not significant, relationship. In addition a significant negative relationship was found between phenotypic diversity and altitude, indicating that genetic diversity decreased with increasing altitude. Taken together, the high levels of intra-population variation and the lack of correlation between genetic differentiation and geographic distribution suggest a potentially important rate of long-distance seed dispersal and confirm the role played by natural selection in the population structure of Tunisian natural populations of B. hybridum.

Can long-distance migratory birds adjust to the advancement of spring by shortening migration distance? The response of the pied flycatcher to latitudinal photoperiodic variation

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2516-2522 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY COPPACK ◽  
ILSE TINDEMANS ◽  
MICHAEL CZISCH ◽  
ANNEMIE VAN der LINDEN ◽  
PETER BERTHOLD ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Pied Flycatcher ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Migration Distance

scholarly journals SeedVicious: analysis of microRNA target and near-target sites

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Marco
Keyword(s):  
Maximum Parsimony ◽  
Web Server ◽  
Population Variation ◽  
Microrna Target ◽  
Microrna Regulation ◽  
Functional Sites ◽  
Site Prediction ◽  
Prediction Tools ◽  
Target Sites ◽  
Study Population

ABSTRACTHere I describe seedVicious, a versatile microRNA target site prediction software that can be easily fitted into annotation pipelines and run over custom datasets. SeedVicious finds microRNA canonical sites plus other, less efficient, target sites. The program also detects near-target sites, which have one nucleotide different from a canonical site. Near-target sites are important to study population variation in microRNA regulation. Here I show that near-target sites can also be functional sites. Among other features, seedVicious can also compute evolutionary gains/losses of target sites using maximum parsimony. SeedVicious does not aim to outperform but to complement existing microRNA prediction tools. For instance, the precision of TargetScan is doubled (from 11% to ~22%) when we filter predictions by the distance between target sites using our program. The software is written in Perl and runs on 64-bit Unix computers (Linux and MacOS X). Users can also try the program in a dedicated web-server by uploading custom data, or browsing pre-computed predictions. SeedVicious and its associated web-server and database (SeedBank) are distributed under the GPL/GNU license.

scholarly journals Targeted Manipulation of Abundant and Rare Taxa in the Daphnia magna Microbiota with Antibiotics Impacts Host Fitness Differentially

mSystems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reilly O. Cooper ◽  
Janna M. Vavra ◽  
Clayton E. Cressler
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Daphnia Magna ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Host Fitness ◽  
Rare Taxa ◽  
Host Life ◽  
Context Shapes

ABSTRACT Host-associated microbes contribute to host fitness, but it is unclear whether these contributions are from rare keystone taxa, numerically abundant taxa, or interactions among community members. Experimental perturbation of the microbiota can highlight functionally important taxa; however, this approach is primarily applied in systems with complex communities where the perturbation affects hundreds of taxa, making it difficult to pinpoint contributions of key community members. Here, we use the ecological model organism Daphnia magna to examine the importance of rare and abundant taxa by perturbing its relatively simple microbiota with targeted antibiotics. We used sublethal antibiotic doses to target either rare or abundant members across two temperatures and then measured key host life history metrics and shifts in microbial community composition. We find that removal of abundant taxa had greater impacts on host fitness than did removal of rare taxa and that the abundances of nontarget taxa were impacted by antibiotic treatment, suggesting that no rare keystone taxa exist in the Daphnia magna microbiota but that microbe-microbe interactions may play a role in host fitness. We also find that microbial community composition was impacted by antibiotics differently across temperatures, indicating that ecological context shapes within-host microbial responses and effects on host fitness. IMPORTANCE Understanding the contributions of rare and abundant taxa to host fitness is an outstanding question in host microbial ecology. In this study, we use the model zooplankton Daphnia magna and its relatively simple cohort of bacterial taxa to disentangle the roles of distinct taxa in host life history metrics, using a suite of antibiotics to selectively reduce the abundance of functionally important taxa. We also examine how environmental context shapes the importance of these bacterial taxa in host fitness.

scholarly journals Patterns in Ectomycorrhizal Diversity, Community Composition, and Exploration Types in European Beech, Pine, and Spruce Forests

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Rosinger ◽  
Hans Sandén ◽  
Bradley Matthews ◽  
Mathias Mayer ◽  
Douglas Godbold
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Short Distance ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
European Beech ◽  
Root Tips ◽  
Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Ectomycorrhizal Diversity ◽  
Exploration Types

Ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi are pivotal drivers of ecosystem functioning in temperate and boreal forests. They constitute an important pathway for plant-derived carbon into the soil and facilitate nitrogen and phosphorus acquisition. However, the mechanisms that drive ectomycorrhizal diversity and community composition are still subject to discussion. We investigated patterns in ectomycorrhizal diversity, community composition, and exploration types on root tips in Fagus sylvatica,Picea abies, and Pinus sylvestris stands across Europe. Host tree species is the most important factor shaping the ectomycorrhizal community as well as the distribution of exploration types. Moreover, abiotic factors such as soil properties, N deposition, temperature, and precipitation, were found to significantly influence EM diversity and community composition. A clear differentiation into functional traits by means of exploration types was shown for all ectomycorrhizal communities across the three analyzed tree species. Contact and short-distance exploration types were clearly significantly more abundant than cord- or rhizomorph-forming long-distance exploration types of EM fungi. Medium-distance exploration types were significantly lower in abundance than contact and short-distance types, however they were the most frequent EM taxa and constituted nearly half of the EM community. Furthermore, EM taxa exhibit distinct ecological ranges, and the type of soil exploration seemed to determine whether EM taxa have small or rather big environmental ranges.

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