Abstract
The genus Plasmodium (Plasmodiidae) ranks among the most widespread intracellular protozoan parasites affecting a wide range of mammals, birds, and reptiles. Little information is available about lizard malaria parasites in South America, and the pathological features of the resulting parasitoses remain unknown or poorly understood. To partially fill in these gaps, we conducted blood smear analysis, molecular detection, and phylogenetic and pathological investigations in lizards inhabiting an Atlantic Forest fragment in Paraiba, Brazil. From 104 striped forest whiptails (Kentropyx calcarata) screened for the presence of haemosporidian parasites, 67 (64.4%) were positive. Four of five Amazon lava lizards (Strobilurus torquatus) we collected from this same area were also positive. A total of 27 forest whiptails were infected with a new genetic lineage of Plasmodium kentropyxi and other Plasmodium lineages were also detected. Histopathological analysis in infected forest whiptails revealed systemic intraerythrocytic Plasmodium stages, mainly gametocytes, in the liver, lung, and heart. Also, the liver of infected lizards had mild to moderate levels of Kupffer cell and melanomacrophage hypertrophy/hyperplasia with sinusoid leukocytosis. Overall, our findings suggest that an endemic Plasmodium species causes histological alterations that are not related to major pathological processes in striped forest whiptails.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG). FCF was supported by the National Postdoctoral Program/CAPES (PNPD/CAPES) and the National Science Foundation grant 1717498 as part of the joint NSF-NIH-USDA Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program. The authors thank the Program for Technological Development in Tools for Health-PDTIS-FIOCRUZ for use of its facilities. FCF thanks Dr. Maria Andreína Pacheco for the assistance in the phylogenetic analysis and Dr. Dina M. Fonseca for proofreading the manuscript. LDF thanks the employees at RPPN Gargaú that helped with the fieldwork.
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Ferreira, F.C., Alves, L.G.M., Jager, G.B. et al. Molecular and pathological investigations of Plasmodium parasites infecting striped forest whiptail lizards (Kentropyx calcarata) in Brazil. Parasitol Res 119, 2631–2640 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06756-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06756-7