Genetic diversity in the trypanorhynch cestode Tentacularia coryphaenae Bosc, 1797: evidence for a cosmopolitan distribution and low host specificity in the teleost intermediate host

Harry W. Palm, A. Waeschenbach, D. T. J. Littlewood

Partial large subunit (28S) rRNA gene (LSU) sequences were studied from Tentacularia coryphaenae (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha) plerocercoids from the southern Java coast, Indonesia, collected from two different localities and five different host species. The teleost hosts belonged to four fish families with an overlapping depth range of 0-885 m. The LSU sequences were identical, demonstrating that all specimens belonged to the same species. They also corresponded to a sequence of T. coryphaenae from the Blue shark Prionace glauca in the North Atlantic, giving genetic evidence for the cosmopolitan distribution of the species. A 1,851 bp region of mitochondrial (mt) DNA (coding for partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1), complete trnT and partial 16S ribosomal RNA) showed a very low level of intra-specific variation of 1%. Pairwise comparisons of published sequences for partial LSU rDNA and the same region of mtDNA demonstrated that the same regions varied by 8% in the mtDNA for two genotypes (G1 and G4) of Echinococcus granulosus (order Cyclophyllidea), at 16% in newly sequenced Kotorella pronosoma from the same trypanorhynch family and at 23% in Grillotia pristiophori from a different superfamily. The high genetic homogeneity in T. coryphaenae is explained by a constant gene flow between different regions and hosts along the Indonesian coast caused by extensive migrations of the second intermediate/paratenic and also the final hosts. Implications for the zoogeographical distribution, host specificity of the species and future research are discussed.