Avian host composition, local speciation and dispersal drive the regional assembly of avian malaria parasites in South American birds

FECCHIO, ALAN; BELL, JEFFREY A.; PINHEIRO, RAFAEL B.P.; CUETO, VICTOR R.; GOROSITO, CRISTIAN A.; LUTZ, HOLLY L.; GAIOTTI, MILENE G.; PAIVA, LUCIANA V.; FRANÇA, LEONARDO F.; TOLEDO?LIMA, GUILHERME; TOLENTINO, MARIANA; PINHO, JOÃO B.; TKACH, VASYL V.; FONTANA, CARLA S.; GRANDE, JUAN MANUEL; SANTILLÁN, MIGUEL A.; CAPARROZ, RENATO; ROOS, ANDREI L.; BESSA, RAFAEL; NOGUEIRA, WAGNER; MOURA, THIAGO; NOLASCO, ERICA C.; COMICHE, KIBA J.M.; KIRCHGATTER, KARIN; GUIMARÃES, LILIAN O.; DISPOTO, JANICE H.; MARINI, MIGUEL Â.; WECKSTEIN, JASON D.; BATALHA?FILHO, HENRIQUE; COLLINS, MICHAEL D.

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019 vol. 28 p. 2681 - 2693

0962-1083

Identifying theecological forces that shape parasite distributions and the evolutionaryfactors that govern parasite assembly remain a central goal in disease ecology.We used the standard barcoding region of thecytochrome-b (cyt-b) gene of the haemosporidian parasite genometo determine which macroecological patterns and biogeographic processes have driventhe contemporary diversity and distributions of avian malaria parasites acrossSouth America. Using 520 avian malaria lineagesrecovered from 7534 birds sampled across the tropical and temperate South Americawe tested 1) the latitudinal diversity gradient hypothesis and 2) distance-decayrelationships for this host-parasite system. Then we inferred the biogeographicprocesses influencing the diversity and distributions of this cosmopolitangroup of parasites in South America regions. We found support for a latitudinalgradient in diversity for avian malaria parasites, potentially mediated throughhigher avian host diversity toward the equator. Turnover of avian malariaparasites was correlated to climate similarity, geographic distance and hostcomposition. Local diversification in Amazonian lineages followed by dispersalwere the most frequent events reconstructed for haemosporidian parasites. Combiningmacroecological patterns and biogeographic processes, our study reveals thatavian malaria parasites are capable of dispersing across biogeographic realmsand circumventing geographic barriers, although constrained by environmentalfiltering. The contemporary diversity and distributions of avian malariaparasites is mainly driven by historical (speciation) and ecological(dispersal) processes, whereas the parasite assembly is largely governed byhost composition and to a lesser extent by environmental conditions.