Abstract
All trypanosome species classified in the subgenus Herpetosoma in sciurid hosts have been recorded from ground and tree squirrels to date, but not from any flying squirrels. We describe in this paper a novel trypanosome species, Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) kuseli sp. n., from Siberian flying squirrels (Pteromys volans) imported from China, and compare it with T. (H.) otospermophili in Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) and Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus columbianus) from the USA. Due to a short free flagellum, the new species appeared stumpy compared with T. otospermophili (length of free flagellum 7.0 ± 0.8 μm, total length 32.1 ± 0.8 μm, n = 13 and length of free flagellum 15.5 ± 1.6 μm, total length 35.9 ± 1.0 μm, n = 13, respectively). Another conspicuous morphological feature of the new species was an anteriorly positioned kinetoplast, found approximately at the midpoint between the nucleus and the posterior end. These characters have not been recorded from any squirrel Herpetosoma trypanosome species. Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the small and large subunit rRNA genes indicated that T. kuseli sp. n. was more homologous to T. otospermophili than murid Herpetosoma species, such as T. grosi, T. lewisi, T. musculi, T. microti and T. evotomys.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Davis BS (1952) Studies on the trypanosomes of some California mammals. UC Publ Zool 57:145–245
Dias E (1938) Trypanosoma de um roedor, Marmota flaviventis nosophora, achado em Montana, Estados Unidos. In: Livro Jubilar do Prof. Lauro Travassos, Typographia do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, pp 141–143 (cited in Hoare, 1972)
Dorney RS (1967) Incidence, taxonomic relationships and development of lewisi-like trypanosomes in Wisconsin Sciuridae. J Protozool 14:425–428
Ewers WH (1974) Trypanosoma aunawa sp. n. from an insectivorous bat, Miniopterus tristris, in New Guinea, which may be transmitted by a leech. J Parasitol 60:172–178
Haag J, O’hUigin C, Overath P (1998) The molecular phylogeny of trypanosomes: evidence for an early divergence of the Salivaria. Mol Biochem Parasitol 91:37–49
Hamilton PB, Stevens JR, Holz P, Boag B, Cooke B, Gibson WC (2005) The inadvertent introduction into Australia of Trypanosoma nabiasi, the trypanosome of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), and its potential for biocontrol. Mol Ecol 14:3167–3175
Hilton DFJ, Mahrt JL (1972) Taxonomy of trypanosomes (Protozoa: Trypanosomatidae) of Spermophilus spp. (Rodentia: Sciuridae). Parasitology 65:403–425
Hoare CA (1972) The trypanosomes of mammals. Blackwell, Oxford
Hoffman RS, Anderson CG, Thorington RW Jr, Heaney LR (1993) Family Sciuridae. In: Wilson DE, Reeder D (eds) Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, pp 419–465
Levine ND (1965) Trypanosomes and Haemobartonella in wild rodents in Illinois. J Protozool 12:225–228
Maraghi S, Molyneux DH, Wallbanks KR (1989) Differentiation of rodent trypanosomes of the subgenus Herpetosoma by lection. Trop Med Parasitol 40:273–278
Marinkelle CJ, Abdalla RE (1978) The multiplication stages of Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) xeri in the liver of the Sudanese ground squirrel Xerus (Euxerus) erythropus. J Wildl Dis 14:11–14
Mercer JM, Roth VL (2003) The effects of cenozoic global change on squirrel phylogeny. Science 299:1568–1572
Mohamed HA, Molyneux DH, Scott CM (1987) Isozyme characterization of trypanosomes of the genus Herpetosoma. Parasitology 94:39–48
Noyes HA, Ambrose P, Barker F, Begon M, Bennet M, Bown KJ, Kemp SJ (2002) Host specificity of Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) species: evidence that bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) carry only one T. (H.) evotomys 18S rRNA genotype but wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) carry at least two polyphyletic parasites. Parasitology 124:185–190
Ranque P (1977) Study on trypanosomes of Sciuridae from Senegal: Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) heliosciuri sp. n. and Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) xeri Leger and Baury, 1922. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 71:255–263
Riedel D (1975) Reproduction, structure and host specificity of Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) tamiasi sp. n. from the eastern chipmunk, Tamias striatus. J Protozool 22:8–17
Sato H, Ishita K, Matsuo K, Inaba T, Kamiya H, Ito M (2003) Persistent infection of Mongolian jirds with a non-pathogenic trypanosome, Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) grosi. Parasitology 127:357–363
Sato H, Ishita K, Osanai A, Yagisawa M, Kamiya H, Ito M (2004) T cell-dependent elimination of dividing Trypanosoma grosi from the bloodstream of Mongolian jirds. Parasitology 128:295–304
Sato H, Osanai A, Kamiya H, Obara Y, Jiang W, Zhen Q, Chai J, Une Y, Ito M (2005) Characterization of SSU and LSU rRNA genes of three Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) grosi isolates maintained in Mongolian jirds. Parasitology 130:157–167
Schwetz J (1933) Trypanosomes rares de la région de Stanleyville (Congo Belge). Ann Parasitol Hum Comp 11:287–296
Steppan SJ, Storz BL, Hoffmann RS (2004) Nuclear DNA phylogeny of the squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia) and the evolution of arboreality from c-mys and RAG1. Mol Phylogenet Evol 30:703–719
Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ (1994) CLUSTRAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, positions-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 22:4673–4680
Todd SR (1963) Studies on some parasiteic flagellates of certain wild mammals of Hyderabad. Arch Protistenkd 107:1–116 (cited in Hoare, 1972)
Woo PTK, Grant DR, McLean L (1980) Trypanosomes of small mammals in southern Ontario. Can J Zool 58:567–571
Acknowledgement
We are indebted to Prof. Y. Yoshikawa, Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, for giving us the opportunity to conduct parasitological surveys on imported rodents. This study was supported in part by a research grant from Fujiwara Natural History Foundation, Tokyo.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sato, H., Al-Adhami, B.H., Une, Y. et al. Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) kuseli sp. n. (Protozoa: Kinetoplastida) in Siberian flying squirrels (Pteromys volans). Parasitol Res 101, 453–461 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-007-0504-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-007-0504-0