| Description |
Recently, the cichlid fishes have been intensively studied for the gyrodactylid parasites more then other fish. Since 2004, diversity of the fish parasites have been studied in five African countries (Senegal, Sudan, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa) and the cichlids were searched as an important target of the investigation. During 10 field samplings, total of 291 specimens of cichlid fishes, representing 18 different species, were collected and studied. The presences of Gyrodactylus Nordmann, 1832 species were noted on eight cichlid species - Hemichromis bimaculatus Gill, 1862, Hemichromis letournaeuxi (Sauvage, 1880), Oreochromis niloticus (L., 1758), Pharyngochromis acuticeps (Steindachner, 1866), Pseudocranilebrus philander (Weber, 1897), Sarotherodon galilaeus (L., 1758), Tilapia rendalli (Boulenger, 1897), Tilapia zillii (Gervais, 1848). Haptoral sclerites morphology and sequencing of the nuclear rDNA revealed the presence of nine Gyrodactylus species, which only four of them are currently known for the sciences as described species (G. cichlidarum, Paperna, 1968, G. ergensi Přikrylová, Matějusová, Musilová & Gelnar, 2009, G. yacatli García-Vázques, Hansen, Christison, Bron & Shinn, 2011 and G. malalai Přikrylová, Blažek & Gelnar, 2012). Molecular comparison and phylogenetic analysis based on Bayesian inferences revealed clustering of particular species which is highly supported by similarities/differences in the morphology of the haptoral complexes. The potential of gyrodactylid parasites to become a good model for phylogeographic and co-evolution studies is proposed and discussed.
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