BACKGROUND: Microsporidia are spore-forming obligate intracellular parasites that include both emerging pathogens and economically important disease agents. However, little is known about the genetic diversity of microsporidia. Here, we investigated patterns of geographic population structure, intraspecific genetic variation, and recombination in two microsporidian taxa that commonly infect cladocerans of the Daphnia longispina complex in central Europe. Taken together, this information helps elucidate the reproductive mode and life-cycles of these parasite species. METHODS: Microsporidia-infected Daphnia were sampled from seven drinking water reservoirs in the Czech Republic. Two microsporidia species (Berwaldia schaefernai and microsporidium lineage MIC1) were sequenced at the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, using the 454 pyrosequencing platform. Geographical structure analyses were performed applying Fisher's exact tests, analyses of molecular variance, and permutational MANOVA. To evaluate the genetic diversity of the ITS region, the number of polymorphic sites and Tajima's and Watterson's estimators of theta were calculated. Tajima's D was also used to determine if the ITS in these taxa evolved neutrally. Finally, neighbour similarity score and pairwise homology index tests were performed to detect recombination events. RESULTS: While there was little variation among Berwaldia parasite strains infecting different host populations, the among-population genetic variation of MIC1 was significant. Likewise, ITS genetic diversity was lower in Berwaldia than in MIC1. Recombination signals were detected only in Berwaldia. CONCLUSION: Genetic tests showed that parasite populations could have expanded recently after a bottleneck or that the ITS could be under negative selection in both microsporidia species. Recombination analyses might indicate cryptic sex in Berwaldia and pure asexuality in MIC1. The differences observed between the two microsporidian species present an exciting opportunity to study the genetic basis of microsporidia-Daphnia coevolution in natural populations, and to better understand reproduction in these parasites.

• MeSH
• Daphnia mikrobiologie   MeSH
• fylogeografie MeSH
• genetická variace * MeSH
• haplotypy MeSH
• intergenová DNA * MeSH
• metagenomika MeSH
• Microsporidia genetika   MeSH
• rekombinace genetická MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Česká republika MeSH

Studies of parasite population dynamics in natural systems are crucial for our understanding of host-parasite coevolutionary processes. Some field studies have reported that host genotype frequencies in natural populations change over time according to parasite-driven negative frequency-dependent selection. However, the temporal patterns of parasite genotypes have rarely been investigated. Moreover, parasite-driven negative frequency-dependent selection is contingent on the existence of genetic specificity between hosts and parasites. In the present study, the population dynamics and host-genotype specificity of the ichthyosporean Caullerya mesnili, a common endoparasite of Daphnia water fleas, were analysed based on the observed sequence variation in the first internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) of the ribosomal DNA. The Daphnia population of lake Greifensee (Switzerland) was sampled and subjected to parasite screening and host genotyping during C. mesnili epidemics of four consecutive years. The ITS1 of wild-caught C. mesnili-infected Daphnia was sequenced using the 454 pyrosequencing platform. The relative frequencies of C. mesnili ITS1 sequences differed significantly among years: the most abundant C. mesnili ITS1 sequence decreased and rare sequences increased over the course of the study, a pattern consistent with negative frequency-dependent selection. However, only a weak signal of host-genotype specificity between C. mesnili and Daphnia genotypes was detected. Use of cutting edge genomic techniques will allow further investigation of the underlying micro-evolutionary relationships within the Daphnia-C. mesnili system.

• MeSH
• časové faktory MeSH
• Daphnia genetika   parazitologie   MeSH
• genotyp MeSH
• hostitelská specificita MeSH
• interakce hostitele a parazita genetika   imunologie   MeSH
• Mesomycetozoea genetika   fyziologie   MeSH
• mezerníky ribozomální DNA MeSH
• selekce (genetika) MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH