Publication details
Cichlids in Southern Africa: attractive hosts for Gyrodactylus species
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In order to understand the diversity of viviparous monogeans parasitizing on cichlids in the region of Southern Africa were collected host fish during 2011-2012, in South Africa from the Nwanedi River and in Zimbabwe from Zambia River, Lakes Kariba and Chivero. Viviparous monogena of the genus Gyrodactylus Nordmann, 1832 were recorded on Oreochromis niloticus (L.), Pharyngochromis acuticeps (Steindachner), Pseudocrenilabrus philander (Weber), Tilapia rendalli Smith, Tilapia sparrmanii Smith and Tilapia sp.. Species identification based on haptoral sclerites morphometry and nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences revealed presence of high number of Gyrodactylus species, which only few of them are currently known for the sciences as described species, i.e. Gyrodactylus nyanzae Paperna, 1973, Gyrodactylus sturmbaueri Vanhove, Snoeks, Volckaert & Huyse, 2011, and Gyrodactylus yacatli García-Vásquez, Hansen, Christison, Bron & Shinn, 2011. This study brings the first record of G. yacatli collected on O. niloticus and P. philander from Africa. Identification of undescribed Gyrodactylus species intimates high diversity of these parasites on African continent. Based on the morphology studied species were divided into groups within each of them the species can be distinguished based on measurements of the haptoral sclerites or the shape of marginal hook sickles. Canonical discriminative analyses (CDA) facilitated morphological groups distinguishing. Phylogenetic analyses, the maximum likelihood and Bayesian interference analyses, revealed interspecific relationship. Resulted clustering of particular species is in the accordance with morphological characters of the haptoral sclerites. |
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