Phylogenetic position of Aulopyge huegelii, enigmatic cyprinid species of Balkan Peninsula, revealed by host specific Dactylogyrus parasites
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Host specificity of fish parasites is considered as one of the most important parasite characteristic helpful for understanding the biogeography of their fish hosts. Monogeneans of the genus Dactylogyrus with more than 900 nominal species are common parasites of the freshwater cyprinid fish exhibiting narrow host specificity. The historical dispersion and phylogenetic position of some cyprinid groups or species are still unclear. One of such enigmatic species is Aulopyge huegelii Heckel, 1843. Therefore, in the present study, we used the host specific Dactylogyrus parasites as the additional tool potentially shedding the light to the history and phylogenetic relationships of A. huegelii within Cyprininae lineage. In total, 14 specimens of A. huegelii from Šujica River (Bosnia and Herzegovina) were investigated for the presence of metazoan parasites. Monogeneans were removed from gills, fins and body surface. Two different species of Dactylogyrus (1 described as new for science) and three species of Gyrodactylus (2 described as new for science, 1 undescribed species) were identified. The record of D. vastator, common parasite of Cyprinus carpio and Carassius species, on A. huegelii supports evolutionary proximity of this fish species to the species of Cyprininae. The other Dactylogyrus species described as D. omenti n. sp. in our study, is according to phylogenetic reconstruction, closely related to Dactylogyrus species parasitising European Barbus and Luciobarbus species. The morphological similarity between D. omenti n. sp. and Dactylogyrus species of Middle Eastern Barbus, such are D. affinis and D. deziensioides, suggest historical contact between cyprinids recently living in allopatry and the possible diversification of these two lineages from common ancestor in Middle East. By computing the genetic distance between D. vastator of A. huegelii and D. vastator collected from other cyprinid host species from different localities across Eurasian supercontinent, we revealed that specimens from A. huegelii are genetically identical to D. vastator from Barbus plebejus (Italy) and Carassius gibelio (Croatia). Moreover, D. vastator of A. huegelii was also genetically more similar to D. vastator of Cyprinus carpio rather than that of Carassius gibelio collected in Czech Republic. |
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