A new species of Haplosporidium Caullery & Mesnil, 1899 in the marine false limpet Siphonaria lessonii (Gastropoda: Siphonariidae) from Patagonia

A new species of Haplosporidium Caullery & Mesnil, 1899 parasitising the pulmonate gastropod Siphonaria lessonii Blainville in Patagonia, Argentina, is described based on morphological (scanning and transmission electron microscopy) and sequence (small subunit ribosomal RNA gene) data. Different sta...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ituarte, Cristian Federico; Bagnato, Estefanía; Siddall, Mark; Cremonte, Florencia
Format: Article
Status:Published version
Publication date:2014
Country:Argentina
Institution:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repository:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/8420
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/8420
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Protozoo
Gasteropodo
Parasito
Patologia
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Description
Summary:A new species of Haplosporidium Caullery & Mesnil, 1899 parasitising the pulmonate gastropod Siphonaria lessonii Blainville in Patagonia, Argentina, is described based on morphological (scanning and transmission electron microscopy) and sequence (small subunit ribosomal RNA gene) data. Different stages of sporulation were observed as infections disseminated in the digestive gland. Haplosporidium patagon n. sp. is characterised by oval orslightly subquadrate spores with an operculum that is ornamented with numerous short digitiform projections of regular height, perpendicular to and covering its outer surface. The operculum diameter is slightly larger than the apical diameter of the spore. Neither the immature nor mature spores showed any kind of projections of the exosporoplasm or of the spore wall. Regarding phylogenetic affinities, the new species was recovered as sister to an undescribed species of Haplosporidium Caullery & Mesnil, 1899 from the polychaete family Syllidae Grube from Japanese waters. The morphological characters (ornamentation of the operculum, spore wall structure, shape and size of spores, and the lack of spore wall projections) corroborate it as an as yet undescribed species of  Haplosporidium and the first for the phylum in marine gastropods of South America. Siphonaria lessonii is the only known host to date.