Abstract - Bartholomew et al. 2006
| Involvement of Manayunkia speciosa (Annelida: Polychaeta: Sabellidae) in the life cycle of Parvicapsula minibicornis, a myxozoan parasite of Pacific salmon. Journal of Parasitology.92:742-748 |
| A coelomic myxozoan infection was detected in freshwater polychaetes, Manayunkia speciosa, from the Klamath River, Oregon/California, a site enzootic for the myxozoan parasites Ceratomyxa shasta and Parvicapsula minibicornis. The tetractinomyxon type actinospores had a near-spherical spore body 7.9 x 7.1 µm, with 3 spherical, protruding polar capsules, no valve cell processes, and a binucleate sporoplasm. Parvicapsula minibicornis-specific primers Parvi1f and Parvi2r amplified DNA from infected polychaetes in a PCR assay. The small subunit 18S rDNA gene of the spores was sequenced (GenBank accession number DQ231038) and was a 99.7% match with the sequence for P. minibicornis myxospore stage in GenBank (AF201375). Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) exposed to a dose of 1000 actinospores per fish tested PCR positive for P. minibicornis at 14 wk post-infection and presporogonic stages were detected in the kidney tubules by histology at 20 wk. This life cycle is 1 of only about 30 known from over 1350 myxozoan species, and only the second known from a freshwater polychaete. |
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