The elucidation of the life cycle of Saccocoelioides nanii Szidat, 1954 (Digenea: Haploporidae) using molecular techniques

MARTINEZ; LORENA; GILARDONI, CARMEN; MEDINA, CINTIA; CREMONTE, FLORENCIA; ETCHEGOIN, JORGE A.

JOURNAL OF HELMINTHOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2023 vol. 97 p. 1 - 6

0022-149X

In South America, the knowledge of trematode diversity parasitizing freshwater fishes is stillscarce, as less than 5% of the freshwater fish fauna has been examined for parasites. A similarsituation applies to studies on digenean life cycles, which have become increasingly rare. Amongthe digenean families parasitizing freshwater fishes in the region, Haploporidae is considered therichest in species diversity. However, information about the developmental stages of haploporidlife cycles remains fragmentary. Particularly, in Argentina, nine cercariae attributed to the familyHaploporidae have been described using morphological analysis, and only two life cycles of thisfamily have been completely elucidated. In this study a new type of cercaria, morphologicallyassigned to the family Haploporidae and collected from the snail Heleobia parchappii(Cochliopidae) in Los Padres shallow lake, Buenos Aires province, was identified using morphological and molecular techniques. The molecular analysis, based on 28S and ITS2 sequences, revealed that the cercariae were 100% identical to adult specimens of Saccocoelioides nanii (Haploporidae) parasitizing the fish Prochilodus lineatus (Prochilodontidae) from Los Talas,Buenos Aires province. Our results not only provide information about the life cycle of S. naniibut also show that a molecular and morphological approach can be extremely useful inidentifying the developmental stages of digeneans and elucidating their life cycles.