Haemoproteus columbae

Prompiram, Phirom, Mongkolphan, Chalisa, Poltep, Kanaporn, Chunchob, Supatra, Sontigun, Narin & Chareonviriyaphap, Theeraphap, 2023, Baseline study of the morphological and genetic characteristics of Haemoproteus parasites in wild pigeons (Columba livia) from paddy fields in Thailand, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 21, pp. 153-159 : 156

3.3. Molecular characteristics and haplotype network of H. columbae

Networks of partial cyt b gene sequences ( Fig. 2A ) revealed that H columbae could be divided into three haplotypes. HAECOL1 had the highest frequency (16 sequences) and was a connected node with a single nucleotide. This node constructed a tri-way linked formation; a second one was linked directly to COQUI05 with double nucleotide variation and last one build to COLIV03 with three nucleotides. The frequency of the two minor haplotypes was not different (n = 4 sequences each). A network of previously reported haplotypes and the current network are shown in Fig. 2B . This network contained six haplotypes. HAECOL1 was a major haplotype with the highest frequency that form two single nucleotide variations: one branch with COLIV07 and another branch with CXNEA02. However, CXNEA02 acted as a middle point of nucleotide variation among HAECOL1, COLIV03, and COQUI05. One branch of CXNEA02 linked to COLIV03 with three nucleotides and another branch linked to an unnamed haplotype (GenBank no.: LC325859). This unnamed haplotype link serves as a connected point between CXNEA02 and COQUI05 with individual single variable nucleotides. Both networks ( Fig. 2A and B ) showed that H. columbae can be classified into at least three common haplotypes, as well as those found in this study. Furthermore, this 479 bp. partial cyt b gene of H. columbae with other available in GenBank; showed 6 variable sites at the following nucleotide positions: 153, 186, 258, 306, 312 and 387. Among the three common haplotypes, COQUI05 and COLIV03 represented three and four variable sites based on HAECOL1 nucleotide variation, whereas the other haplotype had a one and two nucleotide difference, as shown in Table 3. In the evolution divergence (p -distance) analysis among common haplotypes of H. columbae based on partial 479 bp cyt b gene sequence, the highest distance was observed between COLIV03 and COQUI05 (approximately 1%) and the lowest was found between HAECOL1 and COLIV03 (0.8%) and between HAECOL1 and COQUI05 (0.6%) ( Table 4).

Figures

Fig. 2. Haplotype network of partial cyt b sequence (479 bp) of Haemoproteus columbae from wild pigeons (Columba livia); (A) the three common haplotypes (HAECOL1, COLIV03 and COQUI05) found in this study and proportions between study sites; (B) proportions of each haplotype reported worldwide and in the two study sites; Nakhon Sawan (purple), Phitsanulok (pink), and previous reports (gray); number of sequences shown in a pie chart of the network, without number inside indicates one sequence. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)