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Furtado AP, Carvalho ITS, Lewis EL, Bleke CA, Pantoja DL, Colli GR, French SS, Paludo GR. Short-term impact of a wildfire on the homeostasis of Tropidurus oreadicus lizards. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY. PART A, ECOLOGICAL AND INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY 2023; 339:423-436. [PMID: 36773015 DOI: 10.1002/jez.2687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Revised: 01/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
Wildfires cause significant changes in natural habitats and can impact lizard populations. Through changes in the thermal environment, reduced prey availability, and increased exposure to parasite vectors, wildfires affect lizard physiology, immunity, and health. We sampled 56 Tropidurus oreadicus lizards from Cerrado savannas of Brazil living in two adjacent sites: one burned 14 days before the study, and the other unburned for 6 years. We logged the air temperatures of those sites throughout fieldwork. We assessed the short-term possible homeostatic imbalances caused by the fires via measuring body mass, circulating levels of corticosterone (CORT), leukocytes profile changes in heterophile-lymphocyte ratios (HLRs), innate immunity using the bacterial killing assay (BKA), and the diagnosis of hemoparasites using molecular techniques. The air temperature was significantly higher in the burned site. There was no difference in lizard body mass between the two sites, suggesting that prey availability was not affected by the wildfire. While parasite presence was seemingly not affected by fire, the timing of initial parasite infection for animals in the study was unknown, so we also evaluated parasitism as an independent variable relative to the other metrics. Our results showed that parasitic infections lead to reduced bactericidal capacity and body mass in lizards, suggesting clinical disease and depletion of innate immune resources. Moreover, we observed increased HLR with fire and parasitic infections and a strong negative correlation with BKA. These findings suggest that the increased environmental temperature following wildfires may lead to increased CORT and decreased BKA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriana P Furtado
- Departamento de Ciências Animais, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil
| | - Izabelle T S Carvalho
- Departamento de Ciências Animais, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil
| | - Erin L Lewis
- Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA
| | - Cole A Bleke
- Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA
| | - Davi L Pantoja
- Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Piauí, Teresina, Piauí, Brazil
| | - Guarino R Colli
- Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil
| | | | - Giane R Paludo
- Departamento de Ciências Animais, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil
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Dantas-Torres F, Picelli AM, Sales KGDS, Sousa-Paula LCD, Mejia P, Kaefer IL, Viana LA, Pessoa FAC. Ticks on reptiles and amphibians in Central Amazonia, with notes on rickettsial infections. EXPERIMENTAL & APPLIED ACAROLOGY 2022; 86:129-144. [PMID: 34914021 DOI: 10.1007/s10493-021-00682-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2021] [Accepted: 11/26/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Reptiles and amphibians are exceptional hosts for different ectoparasites, including mites and ticks. In this study, we investigated tick infestations on reptiles and amphibians trapped in Central Amazonia, and also assessed the presence of rickettsial infections in the collected ticks. From September 2016 to September 2019, 385 reptiles (350 lizards, 20 snakes, 12 tortoises, and three caimans) and 120 amphibians (119 anurans and one caecilian) were captured and examined for ectoparasites. Overall, 35 (10%) lizards, three (25%) tortoises and one (0.8%) toad were parasitized by ticks (124 larvae, 32 nymphs, and 22 adults). In lizards, tick infestation varied significantly according to landscape category and age group. Based on combined morphological and molecular analyses, these ticks were identified as Amblyomma humerale (14 larvae, 12 nymphs, 19 males, and one female), Amblyomma nodosum (three larvae, one nymph, and one female), and Amblyomma rotundatum (four larvae, three nymphs, and one female), and Amblyomma spp. (103 larvae and 16 nymphs). Our study presents the first records of A. nodosum in the Amazonas state and suggests that teiid lizards are important hosts for larvae and nymphs of A. humerale in Central Amazonia. Moreover, a nymph of A. humerale collected from a common tegu (Tupinambis teguixin) was found positive for Rickettsia amblyommatis, which agrees with previous reports, suggesting that the A. humerale-R. amblyommatis relationship may be more common than currently recognized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filipe Dantas-Torres
- Laboratório de Imunoparasitologia, Instituto Aggeu Magalhães, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Recife, PE, Brazil.
| | - Amanda Maria Picelli
- Fundação Oswaldo Cruz - Fiocruz Rondônia, Porto Velho, RO, Brazil
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Experimental, Fundação Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Porto Velho, RO, Brazil
| | | | | | - Paulo Mejia
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade Tropical, Universidade Federal do Amapá, Macapá, AP, Brazil
| | - Igor Luis Kaefer
- Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, Brazil
| | - Lucio André Viana
- Laboratório de Estudos Morfofisiológicos e Parasitários, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Amapá, Macapá, AP, Brazil
| | - Felipe Arley Costa Pessoa
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Doenças Transmissíveis na Amazônia, Instituto Leônidas e Maria Deane, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Manaus, AM, Brazil
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Pinho SRC, Rodríguez-Málaga S, Lozano-Osorio R, Correa FS, Silva IB, Santos-Costa MC. Effects of the habitat on anuran blood parasites in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon. AN ACAD BRAS CIENC 2021; 93:e20201703. [PMID: 34909821 DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765202120201703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 09/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Biological interactions play an important role in regulating and maintaining natural populations. Like most interactions, parasitism may be influenced by environmental conditions. Therefore, changes caused by human activity may drastically affect the equilibrium of the assemblages of parasitized organisms (hosts). Herein, we described the composition of hemoparasites of anurans from two distinct environments: forest and oil palm plantations. We identified the most frequent groups of blood parasites, and whether infections differ between habitats (forest and plantation) and between microhabitats (arboreal or terrestrial). We collected 128 anurans, of which 46 (36%) were parasitized by hemoparasites. The genus Trypanosoma spp. was found in 30% (n = 37/128) of the infected anurans in both habitats, recorded mostly in terrestrial anurans in oil palm plantations. Apicomplexa hemoprotozoans were also found in 13% (n=17/128) of the anurans, which mainly were terrestrial species collected in oil palm plantations. There was no difference in parasitism between the two assemblies and between the studied microhabitats. This is the first study that has analyzed the ecological relationship between anurans as hosts and their blood parasites, in a region under intense anthropic pressure, in the Brazilian Amazon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sílvia R C Pinho
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Pará e Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil.,Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Ecologia e Zoologia de Vertebrados, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil
| | - Sérgio Rodríguez-Málaga
- Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Parasitologia, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Lozano-Osorio
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Pará e Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil.,Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Ecologia e Zoologia de Vertebrados, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil
| | - Fabrício S Correa
- Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Ecologia e Zoologia de Vertebrados, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil.,Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambiente e Sustentabilidade, Av. Magalhães Barata, 130, 66040-170 Belém, PA, Brazil
| | - Iago B Silva
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Pará e Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil.,Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Ecologia e Zoologia de Vertebrados, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil
| | - Maria C Santos-Costa
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Pará e Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil.,Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Ecologia e Zoologia de Vertebrados, Augusto Correia, 1, 66075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil
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Córdoba OH, Ferreira FC, Pacheco MA, Escalante AA, Braga ÉM. Plasmodium ouropretensis, n. sp., a new case of non-erythrocytic species within lizard malaria parasites. Parasitology 2021; 148:1467-1474. [PMID: 34099070 PMCID: PMC11010158 DOI: 10.1017/s0031182021000895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 05/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Delimiting and describing Plasmodium species in reptiles remains a pressing problem in Haemosporida taxonomy. The few morphological characters used can overlap, and the significance of some life-history traits is not fully understood. Morphologically identical lizard Plasmodium forms have been reported infecting different cell types (red and white blood cells) in the same host and have been considered the same species. An example is Plasmodium tropiduri tropiduri, a species known to infect erythrocytes, thrombocytes and lymphocyte-like cells. Here, both forms of P. t. tropiduri were analysed using light microscope-based morphological characteristics and phylogenetic inferences based on almost complete mitochondrial genomes of parasites naturally infecting lizards in southeastern Brazil. Although morphologically similar, two distinct phylogenetic lineages infecting erythrocytes and non-erythrocytic cells were found. The lineage found in the erythrocytes forms a monophyletic group with species from Colombia. However, the non-erythrocytic lineage shares a recent common ancestor with Plasmodium leucocytica, which infects leucocytes in lizards from the Caribbean islands. Here, Plasmodium ouropretensis n. sp. is described as a species that infects thrombocytes and lymphocyte-like cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oscar Hernandes Córdoba
- Red de Biología y Conservación de Vertebrados, Instituto de Ecología, A.C. Xalapa, Veracruz, México
- Malaria Laboratory, Department of Parasitology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte – MG, Brazil
| | - Francisco C. Ferreira
- Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA
- Center for Vector Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
| | - M. Andreína Pacheco
- Biology Department/Institute of Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine (iGEM), Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Ananias A. Escalante
- Biology Department/Institute of Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine (iGEM), Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Érika Martins Braga
- Malaria Laboratory, Department of Parasitology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte – MG, Brazil
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