English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Background  Saurian malaria parasites are diverse apicomplexan blood parasites including the family Plasmodiidae Mesnil, 1903, and have been studied since the early 1900s. Currently, at least 27 species of  Plasmodium  are recorded in African lizards, and to date only two species,  Plasmodium zonuriae  (Pienaar, 1962) and  Plasmodium cordyli  Telford, 1987, have been reported from the African endemic family Cordylidae. This paper presents a description of a new malaria parasite in a cordylid lizard and provides a phylogenetic hypothesis for saurian  Plasmodium  species from South Africa. Furthermore, it provides a tabular review of the  Plasmodium  species that to date have been formally described infecting species of African lizards.    Methods  Blood samples were collected from 77 specimens of  Pseudocordylus melanotus  (A. Smith, 1838) from Platberg reserve in the Eastern Free State, and two specimens of  Cordylus vittifer  (Reichenow, 1887) from the Roodewalshoek conservancy in Mpumalanga (South Africa). Blood smears were Giemsa-stained, screened for haematozoa, specifically saurian malaria parasites, parasite stages were photographed and measured. A small volume was also preserved for TEM studies.  Plasmodium  and  Haemoproteus  primer sets, with a nested-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol, were employed to target a fragment of the cytochrome- b  (cyt- b ) gene region. Resulting sequences of the saurian  Plasmodium  species’ isolates were compared with each other and to other known  Plasmodium  spp. sequences in the GenBank database.    Results  The presence of  P. zonuriae  in both specimens of the type lizard host  C. vittifer  was confirmed using morphological characteristics, which subsequently allowed for the species’ molecular characterisation. Of the 77  P. melanotus , 44 were parasitised by a  Plasmodium  species, which when compared morphologically to other African saurian  Plasmodium  spp. and molecularly to  P. zonuriae , supported its description as a new species  Plasmodium intabazwe  n. sp.    Conclusions  This is the first morphological and molecular account of  Plasmodium  species within the African endemic family Cordylidae from South Africa. The study highlights the need for molecular analysis of other cordylid  Plasmodium  species within Africa. Future studies should also include elucidating of the life-cycles of these species, thus promoting the use of both morphological and molecular characteristics in species descriptions of saurian malaria parasites.

parasites and vectors

A new lizard malaria parasite Plasmodium intabazwe n. sp. (Apicomplexa: Haemospororida: Plasmodiidae) in the Afromontane Pseudocordylus melanotus (Sauria: Cordylidae) with a review of African saurian malaria parasites