Five species of adult nematodes, unidentifiable nematode larvae, and three species of acanthocephalans, were found in freshwater ornamental fishes newly imported into Germany from Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The following species were identified: Adult Nematoda: Pseudocapillaria tomentosa, Capillariidae gen. sp., Dichelyne hartwichi sp. n., Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) pintoi and Spinitectus allaeri; Acanthocephala: Pseudogorgorhynchus arii gen. et sp. n., Neoechinorhynchus sp. and Pallisentis sp. The nematode Dichelyne hartwichi sp. n. (male only) from the intestine of Chelonodon fluviatilis (Hamilton) from Thailand is characterised mainly by the presence of minute cuticular spines on the tail tip, length of spicules (510 microns) and arrangement of caudal papillae. The acanthocephalan Pseudogorgorhynchus arii sp. n. from the intestine of Ariopsis seemanni (Günther) from Colombia represents a new genus Pseudogorgorhynchus gen. n., differing from other genera of the Rhadinorhynchidae mainly in possessing a small proboscis armed with markedly few (18) hooks arranged in six spiral rows. Spinitectus macheirus Boomker et Puylaert, 1994 and Spinitectus moraveci Boomker et Puylaert, 1994 are considered junior synonyms of Spinitectus allaeri Campana-Rouget, 1961.
Partial nuclear 28S ribosomal RNA and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences (953 and 385 nucleotides, respectively) of one fish monogenean (outgroup) and six polystome monogeneans (four Polystomoides spp. from the oral cavities and urinary bladders of freshwater turtles in Australia and Malaya, two Neopolystoma spp. from the urinary bladder and conjunctival sac of a freshwater turtle in Australia) were used to examine the question of whether congeneric species infecting different sites in the same host species have speciated in that host by adapting to different sites, or whether species infecting a particular site in one host have given rise to species infecting the same site in different hosts. Results show unequivocally that congeneric species infecting the same site, even of host species belonging to different suborders and occurring on different continents, are more closely related than congeneric species infecting different sites of the same host species. This is interpreted as meaning that speciation has not occurred in one host. Morphological evolution of polystomes has been very slow: few differences between species and even genera have evolved over a period of at least 150 Myr, and this is matched by low substitution rates of nucleotides, and the ambiguous position of species of different genera, depending on whether COI or 28S rDNA sequences are used.
During a survey on fishes of the Tasik Kenyir Reservoir, Malaysia, 5 new Myxobolus spp. and 2 known Henneguya spp. were found. The specific locations for 2 Myxobolus spp. were the host's muscles, while 2 other Myxobolus spp. were found to develop in the host's kidney and gills, respectively. Of the species developing intracellularly in muscle cells, M. terengganuensis sp. nov. was described from Osteochilus hasselti and M. tasikkenyirensis sp. nov. from Osteochilus vittatus. M. csabai sp. nov. and M. osteochili sp. nov. were isolated from the kidney of Osteochilus hasselti, while M. dykovae sp. nov. was found in the gill lamellae of Barbonymus schwanenfeldii. Henneguya shaharini and Henneguya hemibagri plasmodia were found on the gills of Oxyeleotris marmoratus and Hemibagrus nemurus, respectively. Description of the new and known species was based on morphological characterization of spores, histological findings on locations of plasmodia and DNA sequence data.
The animal-pathogenic oomycete Saprolegnia parasitica causes serious losses in aquaculture by infecting and killing freshwater fish. Like plant-pathogenic oomycetes, S. parasitica employs similar infection structures and secretes effector proteins that translocate into host cells to manipulate the host. Here, we show that the host-targeting protein SpHtp3 enters fish cells in a pathogen-independent manner. This uptake process is guided by a gp96-like receptor and can be inhibited by supramolecular tweezers. The C-terminus of SpHtp3 (containing the amino acid sequence YKARK), and not the N-terminal RxLR motif, is responsible for the uptake into host cells. Following translocation, SpHtp3 is released from vesicles into the cytoplasm by another host-targeting protein where it degrades nucleic acids. The effector translocation mechanism described here, is potentially also relevant for other pathogen-host interactions as gp96 is found in both animals and plants.
Myxosporeans are known from aquatic annelids but parasitism of platyhelminths by myxosporeans has not been widely reported. Hyperparasitism of gill monogeneans by Myxidium giardi has been reported from the European eel and Myxidium-like hyperparasites have also been observed during studies of gill monogeneans from Malaysia and Japan.The present study aimed to collect new hyperparasite material from Malaysia for morphological and molecular descriptions. In addition, PCR screening of host fish was undertaken to determine whether they are also hosts for the myxosporean.
Marine leech Zeylanicobdella arugamensis (Piscicolidae), an economically important parasite is infesting predominantly cultured groupers, hybrid groupers and other fish in Southeast Asian countries. In this study, we tested the anti-parasitic potential of a medicinal plant Nephrolepis biserrata found in Sabah, East Malaysia against Z. arugamensis. Various concentrations of methanol extracts of the plant were tested experimentally against Z. arugamensis and disinfestation of the leech from its primary host hybrid groupers. The composition of methanol extract of N. biserrata was determined through LC-QTOF analysis. The significant anti-parasitic activity of 100% mortality of leeches was observed with the exposure of N. biserrata extracts. The average time to kill the leeches at concentrations of 25, 50 and 100 mg/ml was 25.11 ± 3.26, 11.91 ± 0.99, and 4.88 ± 0.50 min., respectively. Further, at various low concentrations of N. biserrata 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/ml, hybrid groupers were disinfested in an average time of 108.33 ± 12.65, 65.83 ± 9.70 and 29.16 ± 5.85 min., respectively. The tandem mass spectrometry data from LC-QTOF indicated some hits on useful bioactive compounds such as terpenoids (ivalin, isovelleral, brassinolide, and eschscholtzxanthin), flavonoids (alnustin, kaempferol 7,4'-dimethyl ether, and pachypodol), phenolics (piscidic acid, chlorogenic acid, and ankorine), and aromatic (3-hydroxycoumarin). Thus N. biserrata can act as a potential biocontrol agent.