Diversity of echinostomes (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) in their snail hosts at high latitudes.

ABSTRACT: The biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems globally still leaves much to be discovered, not least in the trematode parasite fauna they support. Echinostome trematode parasites have complex, multiple-host life-cycles, often involving migratory bird definitive hosts, thus leading to widespread distributions. Here, we examined the echinostome diversity in freshwater ecosystems at high latitude locations in Iceland, Finland, Ireland and Alaska (USA). We report 14 echinostome species identified morphologically and molecularly from analyses of nad1 and 28S rDNA sequence data. We found echinostomes parasitising snails of 11 species from the families Lymnaeidae, Planorbidae, Physidae and Valvatidae. The number of echinostome species in different hosts did not vary greatly and ranged from one to thr

SUBMITTER: Pantoja C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8336728 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature