Haemosporidian and trypanosomatid diversity in a high-latitude island ecosystem, including the first record of Zelonia in the Nearctic

TL;DR

This study explores parasite diversity in a high-latitude bird community in Alaska, discovering new parasite lineages and a surprising insect parasite in bird tissue.

Contribution

The study reports novel haemosporidian and trypanosomatid genetic lineages and the first record of Zelonia in the Nearctic region.

Findings

Two novel mitochondrial lineages of haemosporidians (Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon) were identified.

Three novel 18S rRNA genotypes of Trypanosoma with uncertain species-level affinities were found.

A Zelonia trypanosomatid, typically an insect parasite, was unexpectedly detected in avian tissue.

Abstract

Biodiversity surveys remain a critical tool for characterizing the global species richness of parasites. In high-latitude regions of the world, characterizing parasite biodiversity is of particular importance due to the rapid rate at which the climate is changing and potentially shifting parasite distributions and abundances. We sampled a bird community on Prince of Wales Island in southern Alaska, United States, to test for the abundance and richness of haemosporidian and trypanosomatid parasites in this understudied region. We tested for parasites in 67 archived tissue samples of 18 bird species, of which five had not been previously tested for haemosporidians and 11 had not been sampled for trypanosomatids using molecular methods. We recovered two novel mitochondrial genetic lineages of haemosporidians (genera Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon), and three novel 18S rRNA genotypes belonging to Trypanosoma of uncertain species-level affinities. Surprisingly, we also identified a trypanosomatid from the genus Zelonia, a group of monoxenous parasites of insects, from an avian tissue. While this anomalous record may have been the result of environmental contamination, it nonetheless reflects the first record of Zelonia in the entire Nearctic region.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00436-025-08490-4.

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