Diversity of myxozoans (Cnidaria) infecting Neotropical fishes in southern Mexico

0574944 - BC 2024 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Alama-Bermejo, G. - Hernández-Orts, Jesús S. - García-Varela, M. - Oceguera-Figueroa, A. - Pecková, Hana - Fiala, Ivan
Diversity of myxozoans (Cnidaria) infecting Neotropical fishes in southern Mexico.
Scientific Reports. Roč. 13, JULY (2023), č. článku 1. ISSN 2045-2322. E-ISSN 2045-2322
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GX19-28399X
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : myxozoans * Neotropical fishes * Mexico
OECD category: Marine biology, freshwater biology, limnology
Impact factor: 4.6, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38482-2

Myxozoans are a unique group of microscopic parasites that infect mainly fishes. These extremely reduced cnidarians are highly diverse and globally distributed in freshwater and marine habitats. Myxozoan diversity dimension is unknown in Mexico, a territory of an extraordinary biological diversity. This study aimed to explore, for the first time, myxozoan parasite diversity from fishes of the Neotropical region of Mexico. We performed a large morphological and molecular screening using host tissues of 22 ornamental and food fish species captured from different localities of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas. Myxozoan infections were detected in 90% of the fish species, 65% of them had 1 or 2 and 35% had 3 and up to 8 myxozoan species. Forty-one putative new species were identified using SSU rDNA phylogenetic analyses, belonging to two main lineages: polychaete-infecting (5 species) and oligochaete-infecting (36 species) myxozoans, from those we describe 4 new species: Myxidium zapotecus sp. n., Zschokkella guelaguetza sp. n., Ellipsomyxa papantla sp. n. and Myxobolus zoqueus sp. n. Myxozoan detection increased up to 6 x using molecular screening, which represents 3.7 x more species detected than by microscopy. This study demonstrated that Neotropical fishes from Mexico are hosts of a multitude of myxozoans, representing a source of emerging diseases with large implications for economic and conservation reasons.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0345273