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Background  The majority of Haemosporida species infect birds or reptiles, but many important genera, including  Plasmodium , infect mammals. Dipteran vectors shared by avian, reptilian and mammalian Haemosporida, suggest multiple invasions of Mammalia during haemosporidian evolution; yet, phylogenetic analyses have detected only a single invasion event. Until now, several important mammal-infecting genera have been absent in these analyses. This study focuses on the evolutionary origin of  Polychromophilus , a unique malaria genus that only infects bats (Microchiroptera) and is transmitted by bat flies (Nycteribiidae).    Methods  Two species of  Polychromophilus  were obtained from wild bats caught in Switzerland. These were molecularly characterized using four genes ( asl, clpc, coI, cytb ) from the three different genomes (nucleus, apicoplast, mitochondrion). These data were then combined with data of 60 taxa of Haemosporida available in GenBank. Bayesian inference, maximum likelihood and a range of rooting methods were used to test specific hypotheses concerning the phylogenetic relationships between  Polychromophilus  and the other haemosporidian genera.    Results  The  Polychromophilus melanipherus  and  Polychromophilus murinus  samples show genetically distinct patterns and group according to species. The Bayesian tree topology suggests that the monophyletic clade of  Polychromophilus  falls within the avian/saurian clade of  Plasmodium  and directed hypothesis testing confirms the  Plasmodium  origin.    Conclusion   Polychromophilus ' ancestor was most likely a bird- or reptile-infecting  Plasmodium  before it switched to bats. The invasion of mammals as hosts has, therefore, not been a unique event in the evolutionary history of Haemosporida, despite the suspected costs of adapting to a new host. This was, moreover, accompanied by a switch in dipteran host.

malaria journal

The evolutionary host switches of Polychromophilus: a multi-gene phylogeny of the bat malaria genus suggests a second invasion of mammals by a haemosporidian parasite