Polyphyletic origin, intracellular invasion, and meiotic genes in the putatively asexual agamococcidians (Apicomplexa incertae sedis).

ABSTRACT: Agamococcidians are enigmatic and poorly studied parasites of marine invertebrates with unexplored diversity and unclear relationships to other sporozoans such as the human pathogens Plasmodium and Toxoplasma. It is believed that agamococcidians are not capable of sexual reproduction, which is essential for life cycle completion in all well studied parasitic apicomplexans. Here, we describe three new species of agamococcidians belonging to the genus Rhytidocystis. We examined their cell morphology and ultrastructure, resolved their phylogenetic position by using near-complete rRNA operon sequences, and searched for genes associated with meiosis and oocyst wall formation in two rhytidocystid transcriptomes. Phylogenetic analyses consistently recovered rhytidocystids as basal coccidiomorphs

SUBMITTER: Miroliubova TS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7522995 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature