Shape variation of attachment organ and genetic diversity in Cichlido-gyrus (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) parasitizing ‘Ctenochromis’ horei and Cyprichromis microlepidotus showing contrasting dispersal capacities in Lake Tanganyika
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Monogeneans represent a suitable parasite group for addressing fundamental ecological and evolutionary questions on host-parasite associations. The phenotypic plasticity of their at-tachment organ has been repetitively reported. Cichlidogyrus is the most common, species-rich and host-specific gill flatworm know from African cichlids. So far, investigations about phenotypic plasticity in monogenean parasites involved only non-Tanganyikan cichlid hosts or deep-water species of the Tanganyika system. In the present study, we hypothesized an association between the host dispersal capacity and the intraspecific variability of the attach-ment organ (measured by shape variability) of host specific parasites. More specifically, we expected that host populations with limited dispersal capacity harbour morphologically and genetically more differentiated parasite populations. We analyzed the morphological and ge-netic intraspecific variability of the gill monogeneans Cichlidogyrus gistelincki and C. milan-gelnari parasitizing the Tanganyikan ‘Ctenochromis’ horei and Cyprichromis microlepidotus, respectively. The former host is a good disperser whereas the latter shows weak dispersal abil-ity. Parasite individuals were collected from various geographical locations along the Burun-dese and Congolese shorelines. The genetic differentiation among populations in C. giste-lincki and C. milangelnari was assessed using mitochondrial COI sequences. Geomorphomet-rics revealed that the anchor shape variations were independent of the dispersal capacity of the cichlid hosts. Dorsal and ventral anchors showed a similar level of overall shape variation. We demonstrated significant similarities in dorsal and ventral anchors between C. gistelincki populations inhabiting nearby localities along the Burundese lakeshore. In contrast, dorsal and ventral anchors of C. milangelnari individuals from Burundese and Congolese populations showed significant shape variations. Moreover, both C. gistelincki and C. milangelnari indi-viduals expressed high interpopulation genetic diversity but no significant correlation between genetic and geographical distances was found. |
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