Journal of Parasitology

Published by: American Society of Parasitologists

« previous article : next article »


Journal of Parasitology 94(5):1114-1117. 2008
doi: 10.1645/GE-1508.1

A New Species of Cryptosporidium (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) from Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Macropus giganteus)

Michelle L. Power and Una M. Ryan*

Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Sydney, Australia.

101*Division of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch University, Western Australia 6150, Murdoch, Australia

Cryptosporidium macropodum n. sp is described. Oocysts of C. macropodum from the feces of kangaroos (Macropus spp.) are morphologically indistinguishable from other mammalian Cryptosporidium species, including C. parvum, C. hominis, C. suis, and C. canis. The oocysts are fully sporulated on excretion, lack sporocysts, and have an average width of 4.9 μm (4.5– 6.0), a length of 5.4 μm (5.0–6.0), and a length:width ratio of 1.1. Phylogenetic analyses of the 18S ribosomal RNA, actin, and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) loci demonstrate that C. macropodum is genetically distinct from all described Cryptosporidium species, including others found in marsupials. The parasite seems to be highly host-specific, because it has been found only in marsupials to date. Therefore, based on biological and molecular data, we consider C. macropodum a new species.

Received: October 16, 2007; Revised: January 16, 2008; Accepted: January 17, 2008



LITERATURE CITED

Alvarez-Pellitero, P. and A. Sitja-Bobadilla. 2002. Cryptosporidium molnari n. sp. (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) infecting two marine fish species, Sparus aurata L. and Dicentrarchus labrax. L. International Journal for Parasitology 32:1007–1021. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Alvarez-Pellitero, P., M. I. Quiroga, A. Sitjà-Bobadilla, M. J. Redondo, O. Palenzuela, F. Padrós, S. Vázquez, and J. M. Nieto. 2004. Cryptosporidium scophthalmus n. sp. (Apicomplexa; Cryptosporidiidae) from cultured turbot Scophthalmus maximus. Light electron microscope description and histopathological study. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 62:133–145. CrossRef, PubMed
Fayer, R., U. M. Morgan, and S. J. Upton. 2000. Epidemiology of Cryptosporidium: Transmission, detection and identification. International Journal for Parasitology 30:1305–1322. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Fayer, R., J. M. Trout, L. Xiao, U. M. Morgan, A. A. Lal, and J. P. Dubey. 2001. Cryptosporidium canis n. sp. from domestic dogs. Journal of Parasitology 87:1415–1422. Abstract, PubMed, CSA
Ferrari, B. C., M. L. Power, and P. L. Bergquist. 2007. Closed-tube DNA extraction using a thermostable proteinase is highly sensitive, capable of single parasite detection. Biotechnology Letters 29:1831–1837. CrossRef, PubMed
Morgan, U. M., C. C. Constantine, D. A. Forbes, and R. C A. Thompson. 1997. Differentiation between human and animal isolates of Cryptosporidium parvum using rDNA sequencing and direct PCR analysis. Journal of Parasitology 83:825–830. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Morgan, U. M., P. Deplazes, D. A. Forbes, F. Spano, H. Hertzberg, K. D. Sargent, A. Elliot, and R. Thompson. 1999. Sequence and PCR-RFLP analysis of the internal transcribed spacers of the rDNA repeat unit in isolates of Cryptosporidium from different hosts. Parasitology 118:49–58. CrossRef, PubMed
Morgan, U. M., P. T. Monis, R. Fayer, P. Deplazes, and R. A. Thompson. 1999. Phylogenetic relationships among isolates of Cryptosporidium: Evidence for several new species. Journal of Parasitology 85:1126–1133. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Morgan-Ryan, U. M., A. Fall, L. A. Ward, N. Hijjawi, I. Sulaiman, R. Fayer, R. C A. Thompson, M. Olson, A. Lal, and L. Xiao. 2002. Cryptosporidium hominis n. sp. (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) from Homo sapiens. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 49:433–440. Abstract, PubMed, CSA
O'Donoghue, P. 1995. Cryptosporidium and cryptosporidiosis in man and animals. International Journal for Parasitology 25:139–195. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Power, M. L., N. C. Sangster, M. B. Slade, and D. A. Veal. 2005. Patterns of Cryptosporidium oocyst shedding by eastern grey kangaroos inhabiting an Australian watershed. Applied & Environmental Microbiology 71:6159–6164. CrossRef, PubMed
Power, M. L., S. R. Shanker, N. C. Sangster, and D. A. Veal. 2003. Evaluation of a combined immunomagnetic separation/flow cytometry technique for epidemiological investigations of Cryptosporidium in domestic and Australian native animals. Veterinary Parasitology 112:21–31. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Power, M. L., M. B. Slade, N. C. Sangster, and D. A. Veal. 2004. Genetic characterization of Cryptosporidium from a wild population of eastern grey kangaroos Macropus giganteus inhabiting a water catchment. Infection Genetics and Evolution 4:56–97. CrossRef
Ryan, U. M., L. Xiao, C. Read, I. M. Sulaiman, P. Monis, A. A. Lal, R. Fayer, and I. Pavlasek. 2003. A redescription of Cryptosporidium galli Pavlasek, 1999 (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) from birds. Journal of Parasitology 89:809–813. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Ryan, U. M., P. Monis, H. L. Enemark, I. Sulaiman, B. Samarasinghe, C. Read, R. Buddle, I. Robertson, L. Zhou, and R. C A. Thompson. et al. 2004. Cryptosporidium suis n. sp. (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) in pigs (Sus scrofa). Journal of Parasitology 90:769–773. CrossRef, PubMed
Ryan, U. M., M. L. Power, and L. Xiao. 2008. Cryptosporidium fayeri n. sp (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) from a red kangaroo (Macropus rufus). Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 55:22–26. CrossRef, PubMed
Sulaiman, I. M., U. M. Morgan, R. C A. Thompson, A. A. Lal, and L. Xiao. 2000. Phylogenetic relationships of Cryptosporidium parasites based on the 70-kilodalton heat shock protein (HSP70) gene. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 66:2385–2391. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Sulaiman, I. M., A. A. Lal, and L. Xiao. 2002. Molecular phylogeny and evolutionary relationships of Cryptosporidium parasites at the actin locus. Journal of Parasitology 88:388–394. Abstract, PubMed, CSA
Thompson, J. D. 2007. Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Australian marsupials. Honors Thesis. Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch, Perth, Australia, 141 p.
Thompson, J. D., D. G. Higgins, and T. J. Gibson. 1994. CLUSTALW: Improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Research 22:4673–4680. CrossRef, PubMed, CSA
Xiao, L., R. Fayer, U. Ryan, and S. J. Upton. 2004. Cryptosporidium taxonomy: Recent advances and implications for public health. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 17:72–97. CrossRef, PubMed
Xiao, L., J. R. Limor, L. Li, U. Morgan, R. C A. Thompson, and A. A. Lal. 1999. Presence of heterogeneous copies of the small subunit rRNA gene in Cryptosporidium parvum human and marsupial genotypes and Cryptosporidium felis. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 46:44S–45S. PubMed, CSA

Figure 1.Photomicrograph of oocysts of Cryptosporidium macropodum from eastern grey kangaroo feces

Figure 2.Phylogenetic relationships between Cryptosporidium macropodum and valid Cryptosporidium spp. inferred by neighbor joining. The tree was constructed by concatenating sequences of 18S rRNA, actin, and HSP70 loci. Plasmodium falciparum was used as the outgroup for each locus. Bootstrap values (>60%) for 1,000 replicates for neighbor joining (first value) and parsimony (second value) are indicated

table

Table I.Percentage of nucleotide similarities between C. macropodum and described Cryptosporidium species, and marsupial derived geno types
click this button to close

Article Views

Article Tools

click this button to open

Citing Articles

 
BioOne is the product of innovative collaboration between scientific societies, libraries, academe and the private sector.
 
21 Dupont Circle NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036 • Phone 202.296.2296 • Fax 202.872.0884
 
Copyright © 2009 BioOne All rights reserved