Genetic signature analysis of Perkinsus marinus in Mexico suggests possible translocation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific coast of Mexico

• Published in: Parasites & Vectors
• Main Authors: Juan Pablo Ek-Huchim, Ma. Leopoldina Aguirre-Macedo, Monica Améndola-Pimenta, Victor Manuel Vidal-Martínez, Juan Antonio Pérez-Vega, Raúl Simá-Alvarez, Isabel Jiménez-García, Roberto Zamora-Bustillos, Rossanna Rodríguez-Canul
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2017
• Subjects: Perkinsus marinus; Crassostrea virginica; Gulf of Mexico; Transfer; Mexican Pacific coast; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Collier; Pacific; Crassostrea gigas
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-017-2304-4; https://doaj.org/article/00f872ec0dc14f5e9646756745ef9373

Abstract Background The protozoan Perkinsus marinus (Mackin, Owen & Collier) Levine, 1978 causes perkinsosis in the American oyster Crassostrea virginica Gmelin, 1791. This pathogen is present in cultured C. virginica from the Gulf of Mexico and has been reported recently in Saccostrea palmula (Carpenter, 1857), Crassostrea corteziensis (Hertlein, 1951) and Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg, 1793) from the Mexican Pacific coast. Transportation of fresh oysters for human consumption and repopulation could be implicated in the transmission and dissemination of this parasite across the Mexican Pacific coast. The aim of this study was two-fold. First, we evaluated the P. marinus infection parameters by PCR and RFTM (Ray’s fluid thioglycollate medium) in C. virginica from four major lagoons (Términos Lagoon, Campeche; Carmen-Pajonal-Machona Lagoon complex, Tabasco; Mandinga Lagoon, Veracruz; and La Pesca Lagoon, Tamaulipas) from the Gulf of Mexico. Secondly, we used DNA sequence analyses of the ribosomal non-transcribed spacer (rNTS) region of P. marinus to determine the possible translocation of this species from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mexican Pacific coast. Results Perkinsus marinus prevalence by PCR was 57.7% (338 out of 586 oysters) and 38.2% (224 out of 586 oysters) by RFTM. The highest prevalence was observed in the Carmen-Pajonal-Machona Lagoon complex in the state of Tabasco (73% by PCR and 58% by RFTM) and the estimated weighted prevalence (WP) was less than 1.0 in the four lagoons. Ten unique rDNA-NTS sequences of P. marinus [termed herein the “P. marinus (Pm) haplotype”] were identified in the Gulf of Mexico sample. They shared 96–100% similarity with 18 rDNA-NTS sequences from the GenBank database which were derived from 16 Mexican Pacific coast infections and two sequences from the USA. The phylogenetic tree and the haplotype network showed that the P. marinus rDNA-NTS sequences from Mexico were distant from the rDNA-NTS sequences of P. marinus reported from the USA. The ten rDNA-NTS sequences described ...