Evolution in congeneric monogeneans: from diversification to community structure
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Among monogeneans, there are several highly diversified genera. Majority of monogenean congeneric species exhibit a certain degree of host specificity. There are the evidences that extremely high numbers of congeneric species co-occur in one host species. Such congeneric species usually possess the interspecific variability in attachment organ and occupy the preferred niches. I focus on several aspects of evolution in congeneric monogeneans. The process of speciation has been recently investigated in several congeneric monogeneans suggesting that cospeciation does not play an important role in diversification of congeneric monogeneans. Cophylogenetic analyses using congeneric Dactylogyridae parasitizing freshwater fish revealed that these parasite groups speciated by intrahost duplication followed by host switching. Host switching was recognized as coevolutionary event in speciation of gill congeneric monogeneans parasitizing marine fish or in the case of viviparous Gyrodactylus. The analyses of evolution of host specificity in congeneric Dactylogyridae indicated that being a host specific represents the ancestral state of host specificity. The evolution of preferred niche was investigated in Dactylogyrus species using the mapping of preferred niche positions into parasite phylogenetic reconstruction. The species forming monophyletic groups and parasitizing one host species, resulting from intra-host speciation, differ in at least one of the niche parameters. The communities of congeneric monogeneans are generally considered as isolationist. The niches of many congeneric monogeneans occupying the same fish species are segregated which is explained by past competition, specialization and/or mating contacts hypotheses. The congeners possessing the similar haptor morphology tend to occupy the closely situated niche positions within host, however, differentiate in the morphology of their reproductive organs (i.e. reinforcement of reproductive isolation between congeners). |
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