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Morphometric and molecular characterisation of Hepatozoon bashtari n. sp. in painted saw-scaled viper, Echis coloratus (Ophidia, Viperidae)

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Abstract

Hepatozoon species are the most widely known haemogregarines infecting a wide range of vertebrates, although predominately snakes. Herein, Hepatozoon bashtari n. sp., originally infecting the painted saw-scaled viper, Echis coloratus, in Saudi Arabia is described using both morphological features and molecular data from 18S rDNA sequences. The overall prevalence of infection was 60% (9/15) with parasitaemia ranging from 52 to 60%. Gamonts were entirely intraerythrocytic and were observed to cause considerable hypertrophy within the host cell. The mean size of mature gamonts was 15.4 × 3.3 μm. Merogonic stages were confined to the lung endothelial cells with monomorphic meronts. The average size of mature meronts was 32 × 12 μm and they were estimated to produce 13–16 merozoites each. The phylogenetic tree generated from SSU rDNA sequences revealed that Hepatozoon bashtari sp. n. clusters with the vast majority of other Hepatozoon species infecting snakes, lizards and geckos in various regions of the world, which would appear to support the hypothesis of prey-predator transmission of the genus Hepatozoon. Through a combination of morphological comparison with closely related Hepatozoon spp. and 18S rRNA gene sequence analysis, it is possible to confirm Hepatozoon bashtari sp. n. as a new species.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Researcher supporting Project (RSP-2019/3), King Saud University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef, Egypt

    Abdel-Azeem S. Abdel-Baki & Heba M. Abdel-Haleem

  2. Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Lamjed Mansour & Saleh Al-Quraishy

  3. Laboratory of Biodiversity and Parasitology of Aquatic Ecosystems (LR18ES05), Department of Biology, Faculty of Science of Tunis, University Campus, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, 2092, Tunisia

    Lamjed Mansour

  4. Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah, 11952, Riyadh Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Esam S. Al-Malki

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  1. Abdel-Azeem S. Abdel-Baki
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Correspondence to Abdel-Azeem S. Abdel-Baki.

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Abdel-Baki, AA.S., Mansour, L., Al-Malki, E.S. et al. Morphometric and molecular characterisation of Hepatozoon bashtari n. sp. in painted saw-scaled viper, Echis coloratus (Ophidia, Viperidae). Parasitol Res 119, 3793–3801 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06886-y

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