Differential patterns of definitive host use by two fish acanthocephalans occurring in sympatry: Pomphorhynchus laevis and Pomphorhynchus tereticollis.

ABSTRACT: Parasites with complex life-cycles and trophic transmission are expected to show low specificity towards final hosts. However, testing this hypothesis may be hampered by low taxonomic resolution, particularly in helminths. We investigated this issue using two intestinal fish parasites with similar life-cycles and occurring in sympatry, Pomphorhynchus laevis and Pomphorhynchus tereticollis (Acanthocephala). We used species-specific ITS1 length polymorphism to discriminate parasite species from 910 adult acanthocephalans collected in 174 individual hosts from 12 fish species. Both P. laevis and P. tereticollis exhibited restricted host range within the community of available fish host species, and transmission bias compared to their relative abundance in intermedi

SUBMITTER: Perrot-Minnot MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6370571 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature