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First elucidation of a blood fluke (Electrovermis zappum n. gen., n. sp.) life cycle including a chondrichthyan or bivalve.

Micah B Warren | Stephen A Bullard
International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife | 2019

We describe a new fish blood fluke (Digenea: Aporocotylidae: Electrovermis zappum n. gen., n. sp.) and its life cycle in the intertidal zone adjacent to Mobile Bay (north-central Gulf of Mexico). This is the first elucidated aporocotylid life cycle that includes a chondrichthyan definitive host or a bivalve intermediate host. The new species undergoes asexual reproduction within the gonad of the variable coquina clam before maturing in the heart of the lesser electric ray. These adults and cercariae had identical 28S, 18S, and ITS2 nucleotide sequences. The new genus is similar to Ogawaia Cutmor et al., 2018 by having an inverse U-shaped intestine, a looping testis, and a uterus having distinct ascending and descending segments. It differs by having a body that is ≥ 30 × longer than wide, a testis with >30 curves, an obvious cirrus sac enveloping an extremely elongate cirrus, an ovary anterior to the seminal vesicle, and a post-gonadal uterus. The new species further differs from the type species of Ogawaia (Ogawaia glaucostegi Cutmore et al., 2018) by having a massive seminal vesicle (>10% of body length), a cirrus sac enveloping an extremely elongate cirrus, and a slightly sinuous uterus. Histology confirmed gametogenesis in an infected coquina clam but no discernible cellular response to infection was observed. We also i) characterize a second morphologically and genetically distinct cercaria (perhaps representing an innominate chondrichthyan aporocotylid) infecting the green jackknife clam in Mississippi Sound (north-central Gulf of Mexico), ii) compare all known aporocotylid cercariae infecting estuarine and marine mollusks and polychaetes and iii) provide a key to identify those cercariae. A phylogenetic analysis including nucleotide sequences from adult and cercarial specimens of the newly collected fish blood flukes further supports the notion that chondrichthyan aporocotylids are monophyletic and use bivalves as the first intermediate host; perhaps unlike any other blood fluke lineage.

Pubmed ID: 31667079

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GenBank (tool)

RRID:SCR_002760

NIH genetic sequence database that provides annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences for almost 280 000 formally described species (Jan 2014) .These sequences are obtained primarily through submissions from individual laboratories and batch submissions from large-scale sequencing projects, including whole-genome shotgun (WGS) and environmental sampling projects. Most submissions are made using web-based BankIt or standalone Sequin programs, and GenBank staff assigns accession numbers upon data receipt. It is part of International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration and daily data exchange with European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) ensures worldwide coverage. GenBank is accessible through NCBI Entrez retrieval system, which integrates data from major DNA and protein sequence databases along with taxonomy, genome, mapping, protein structure and domain information, and biomedical journal literature via PubMed. BLAST provides sequence similarity searches of GenBank and other sequence databases. Complete bimonthly releases and daily updates of GenBank database are available by FTP.

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