Phylogeny of parasites of the genus Dactylogyrus (Monogenea) on Balkan Peninsula
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Parasites of genus Dactylogyrus exhibit a high species richness and high level of host specificity. More than 900 described species emerged from high species richness of their hosts, which are freshwater fish of family Cyprinidae. Dactylogyrus parasites were collected over two year period from cyprinid fish from 22 different localities over southern Balkan Peninsula. Of total 37 Dactylogyrus species from 36 cyprinid host species, 9 were identified as new for science. Other 27 species included endemic, highly host specific species, or commonly distributed Dactylogyrus species. Molecular analyses based on combined sequences of partial 18S rDNA and ITS1 region revealed several complexes of cryptic species. Such examples are Dactylogyrus dyki parasitizing on cyprinids of Barbus genus, D. folkmanovae commonly found on Squalius and D. vistulae which represent generalist species parasitizing different cyprinid genera. Molecular data showed the variability between specimens (1) collected from different host species and (2) collected from two different localities but parasitizing the same host species. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed several Dactylogyrus lineages. Evolutionary and morphologically closely related Dactylogyrus species were found on Luciobarbus albanicus and Tropidophoxinellus helenicus representing two cyprinids with high evolutionary divergence. This may suggest recent host-switching of Dactylogyrus between two phylogenetically non-related species living in the same geographical region. Different case is for D. rarissimus parasitizing Rutilus. This parasite species has been found on widely distributed R. rutilus in Europe and Balkan endemic R. haecklii as well. Dactylogyrus species similar to D. rarissimus on the base of morphological and molecular markers was collected from Pelasgus laconicus and Telestes alfiensis. These two endemic fish species do not live recently in parapatry with Rutilus, which could suggest historical contacts of different cyprinid lineages. |
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