Haemosporidian Parasite Community In Migrating Bobolinks On The Galapagos Islands, Patricia Parker, Noah G. Perlut, Rosalind B. Renfrew, Maricruz Jaramillo
Jul 2018
Haemosporidian Parasite Community In Migrating Bobolinks On The Galapagos Islands, Patricia Parker, Noah G. Perlut, Rosalind B. Renfrew, Maricruz Jaramillo
Patricia Parker
Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) migrate from their breeding grounds in North America to their wintering grounds in South America during the fall each year. A small number of Bobolinks stop temporarily in Galapagos, and potentially carry parasites. On the North American breeding grounds, Bobolinks carry a least two of the four Plasmodium lineages recently detected in resident Galapagos birds. We hypothesized that Bobolinks carried these parasites to Galapagos, where they were bitten by mosquitoes that then transmitted the parasites to resident birds. The haemosporidian parasite community in 44% of the Bobolinks we captured was consistent with those on their breeding grounds. …
Mode And Rate Of Evolution Of Haemosporidian Mitochondrial Genomes: Timing The Radiation Of Avian Parasites, Patricia Parker, M Andreína Pacheco, Nubia E. Matta, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Beatriz Mello, Craig E. Stanley Jr, Miguel Lentino, Maria Alexandra Garcia-Amado, Michael Cranfield, Sergei L Kosakovsky Pond, Ananias A. Escalante
Jan 2018
Mode And Rate Of Evolution Of Haemosporidian Mitochondrial Genomes: Timing The Radiation Of Avian Parasites, Patricia Parker, M Andreína Pacheco, Nubia E. Matta, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Beatriz Mello, Craig E. Stanley Jr, Miguel Lentino, Maria Alexandra Garcia-Amado, Michael Cranfield, Sergei L Kosakovsky Pond, Ananias A. Escalante
Patricia Parker
Haemosporidians are a diverse group of vector-borne parasitic protozoa that includes the agents of human malaria; however, most of the described species are found in birds and reptiles. Although our understanding of these parasites’ diversity has expanded by analyses of their mitochondrial genes, there is limited information on these genes’ evolutionary rates. Here, 114 mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) were studied from species belonging to four genera: Leucocytozoon, Haemoproteus, Hepatocystis, and Plasmodium. Contrary to previous assertions, the mtDNA is phylogenetically informative. The inferred phylogeny showed that, like the genus Plasmodium, the Leucocytozoon and Haemoproteus genera are not monophyletic groups. Although sensitive to …
Landscape Genomics: Natural Selection Drives The Evolution Of Mitogenome In Penguins, Barbara Ramos, Daniel González-Acuña, David E. Loyola, Warren E. Johnson, Patricia G. Parker, Melanie Massaro, Gisele P. M. Dantas, Marcelo D. Miranda, Juliana A. Vianna
Jan 2018
Landscape Genomics: Natural Selection Drives The Evolution Of Mitogenome In Penguins, Barbara Ramos, Daniel González-Acuña, David E. Loyola, Warren E. Johnson, Patricia G. Parker, Melanie Massaro, Gisele P. M. Dantas, Marcelo D. Miranda, Juliana A. Vianna
Patricia Parker
Background
Mitochondria play a key role in the balance of energy and heat production, and therefore the mitochondrial genome is under natural selection by environmental temperature and food availability, since starvation can generate more efficient coupling of energy production. However, selection over mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genes has usually been evaluated at the population level. We sequenced by NGS 12 mitogenomes and with four published genomes, assessed genetic variation in ten penguin species distributed from the equator to Antarctica. Signatures of selection of 13 mitochondrial protein-coding genes were evaluated by comparing among species within and among genera (Spheniscus, Pygoscelis, Eudyptula, Eudyptes …
