Redescription and molecular diagnosis of Hepatozoon theileri (Laveran, 1905) (Apicomplexa: Adeleorina: Hepatozoidae), infecting Amietia quecketti (Anura: Pyxicephalidae)
Date
2014Author
Netherlands, Edward C.
Cook, Courtney A.
Smit, Nico J.
Du Preez, Louis H.
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Blood smears prepared from the peripheral blood of 20 wild caught Amietia quecketti (Boulenger) from the North-West
University Botanical Gardens, North West Province, South Africa, were examined for the presence of haemogregarines. A haemogregarine
species comparative in morphology, host and geographical locality to that of Haemogregarina theileri Laveran, 1905 was detected.
The original description of H. theileri was based solely on frog peripheral blood gamont stages. Later, further parasite stages,
including trophozoites and merogonic liver stages, were recorded in a related Amietia sp. from equatorial Africa. This species was
originally classified as a member of the genus Haemogregarina Danilewsky, 1885, but due to the close life cycle and morphological
resemblance to those of Hepatozoon species, H. theileri was later transferred from Haemogregarina to Hepatozoon Miller, 1908.
In the present study, meront and merozoite stages not described before, along with previously observed trophozoite, immature and
mature gamont stages, are described from the peripheral blood of hosts. In addition, comparative phylogenetic analysis of the partial
18S rDNA sequence of Hepatozoon theileri to those of other haemogregarine species, including those of species of Hepatozoon and
a Haemogregarina, support the taxonomic transfer of H. theileri to Hepatozoon, nesting H. theileri within a clade comprising species
parasitising other amphibians. This is the first molecular and phylogenetic analysis of an African anuran species of Hepatozoon.