2026-06-30T14:20:27Zhttps://docta.ucm.es/rest/oai/request

oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/1125752025-07-30T17:40:06Zcom_20.500.14352_14col_20.500.14352_15

Lizard host abundances and climatic factors explain phylogenetic diversity and prevalence of blood parasites on an oceanic island Megia Palma, Rodrigo Manuel Palomar García, Gemma Martínez, Javier Antunes, Bernardo Dudek, Katarzyna Zagar, Anamarija Serén, Nina Carretero, Miguel Ángel Babik, Wieslaw Merino, Santiago Host abundance might favour the maintenance of a high phylogenetic diversity of some parasites via rapid transmission rates. Blood parasites of insular lizards represent a good model to test this hypothesis because these parasites can be particularly prevalent in islands and host lizards highly abundant. We applied deep amplicon sequencing and analysed environmental predictors of blood parasite prevalence and phylogenetic diversity in the endemic lizard Gallotia galloti across 24 localities on Tenerife, an island in the Canary archipelago that has experienced increasing warming and drought in recent years. Parasite prevalence assessed by microscopy was over 94%, and a higher proportion of infected lizards was found in warmer and drier locations. A total of 33 different 18s rRNA parasite haplotypes were identified, and the phylogenetic analyses indicated that they belong to two genera of Adeleorina (Apicomplexa: Coccidia), with Karyolysus as the dominant genus. The most important predictor of between-locality variation in parasite phylogenetic diversity was the abundance of lizard hosts. We conclude that a combination of climatic and host demographic factors associated with an insular syndrome may be favouring a rapid transmission of blood parasites among lizards on Tenerife, which may favour the maintenance of a high phylogenetic diversity of parasites. 2024-12-12T19:12:42Z 2024-12-12T19:12:42Z 2024-12-12T19:12:42Z 2024 journal article https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/112575 0962-1083 10.1111/mec.17276 1365-294X eng info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO//CGL2015-67789-C2-1-P/ES/INFLUENCIA DE VARIABLES CLIMATICAS SOBRE LA INCIDENCIA DE ENFERMEDADES PARASITARIAS/ info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PGC2018-097426-B-C21/ES/MODULADORES DE LAS RELACIONES PARASITO-HOSPEDADOR: CLIMA E INTERACCIONES ENTRE ORGANISMOS :/ Megía‐Palma R, Palomar G, Martínez J, Antunes B, Dudek K, Žagar A, Serén N, Carretero MA, Babik W, Merino S. Lizard host abundances and climatic factors explain phylogenetic diversity and prevalence of blood parasites on an oceanic island. Molecular Ecology 2024;33:e17276. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17276. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Wiley