Redescription and molecular characterization of sarcocysts of Sarcocystis cymruensis from Norway rats ( Rattus norvegicu
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PROTOZOOLOGY - ORIGINAL PAPER
Redescription and molecular characterization of sarcocysts of Sarcocystis cymruensis from Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Sarcocystis ratti from black rats (R. rattus) in China Hongxia Zeng 1 & Yanmei Guo 2 & Chunli Ma 1 & Shuangsheng Deng 1 & Junjie Hu 3
&
Yunzhi Zhang 4
Received: 18 May 2020 / Accepted: 9 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In the present study, sarcocysts of Sarcocystis cymruensis were found in four of 42 (9.5%) Norway rats and those of S. ratti were observed in six of 60 (10%) black rats in China. With light microscopy, the sarcocysts of the two parasites were microscopic, and had smooth, thin cyst walls (≤ 1 μm). Ultrastructurally, the sarcocysts of S. cymruensis had small, osmiophilic, bleb-like protrusions, similar to type 1c; those of S. ratti had a cyst wall with regular, short, conical protrusions, similar to type 1 g. Three loci, i.e., 18S rDNA, the mitochondrial cox1 gene (Cox1), and the mitochondrial Cytb gene (Cytb), of the two parasites were sequenced and analyzed, and the Cytb sequences of the two parasites constituted the first records of this marker in GenBank. A comparison of the newly obtained sequences of the three loci between the two parasites revealed that the interspecific similarities of 18S rDNA, Cox1, and Cytb were 96.4–97.2%, 96.5%, and 93.7%, respectively. Therefore, the two species could be better discriminated with Cytb than with 18S rDNA and Cox1. Phylogenetic analysis based on 18S rDNA sequences and Cox1 sequences indicated that the two parasites had a close relationship with Sarcocystis in nonruminant animals, especially birds and canids. Keywords Sarcocystis cymruensis . Sarcocystis ratti . Rattus . Morphological and molecular characteristics . China
Introduction Sarcocystis spp. are cyst-forming intracellular protozoan parasites with an obligate two-host life cycle, with predators as definitive hosts and their prey animals as intermediate hosts. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) and black rats (R. rattus) are omnivorous and occur worldwide (Huang et al. 1995). To Section Editor: David S. Lindsay * Junjie Hu [email protected] * Yunzhi Zhang [email protected] 1
School of Biological Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
2
College of Haiyuan, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650106, China
3
School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
4
Yunnan Institute of Endemic Diseases Control and Prevention, Dali 671000, China
date, six species of Sarcocystis have been recorded from the two rats, which are used as natural intermediate hosts, and named, i.e., S. singaporensis Zaman and Colley 1976; S. cymruensis Ashford 1978; S. murinotechis Munday and Mason 1980; S. villivillosi Beaver and Maleckar 1981; S. zamani Beaver and Maleckar 1981; S. rodentifelis Grikieniené et al. 1993; S. zuoi Hu et al. 2005; and S. ratti Prakas et al. 2019. By light microscopy (LM), these parasites can be divided into two categories. One categor
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