Rapid host expansion of an introduced parasite, the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae), among endemic rodents in Australia

Wei Wang; Lance A Durden; Renfu Shao

doi:10.1186/s13071-020-3957-y

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Rapid host expansion of an introduced parasite, the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae), among endemic rodents in Australia

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Rapid host expansion of an introduced parasite, the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae), among endemic rodents in Australia

Wei Wang, Lance A Durden and Renfu Shao

Parasites & vectors, Vol.13, 83

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-3957-y

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Abstract

sucking lice

rodents

host-parasite relationships

invasive species

psocodea

phthiraptera

polyplacidae

polyplax spinulosa

Background: Historical European exploration and colonization resulted in the introduction of four species of rodents to the Australian continent from Eurasia: the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, the black rat, R. rattus, the Pacific rat, R. exulans, and the house mouse, Mus musculus. The spread of these rodents created opportunities for their co-introduced sucking lice to parasitize and adapt to endemic rodents in Australia. Methods: We collected sucking lice from rodent specimens in seven museums across Australia. We identified the spiny rat louse, Polyplax spinulosa, based on morphology. We sequenced the mitochondrial cox1 and rrnL genes of P. spinulosa specimens and constructed a phylogenetic tree with rrnL sequences. Results: We examined 989 rodent specimens of 54 species and collected 2111 adult sucking lice and 1064 nymphal sucking lice. We found that P. spinulosa had nearly doubled its host range by parasitizing at least six endemic rodent species in Australia. The other two introduced lice, P. serrata and Hoplopleura pacifica, however, have apparently failed to expand to any endemic rodents in Australia. Our analysis of mitochondrial rrnL gene sequences divided P. spinulosa into two genotypes (European vs Southeast Asian), which differ by 7.5%; both genotypes were introduced into Australia and then expanded their host ranges to include endemic rodents. Conclusions: The earliest record of a European ship landing in Australia was in 1606, followed by British settlement in 1788. The expansion of P. spinulosa to at least six endemic rodent species in Australia has therefore occurred in the time frame of 200 to 400 years, which is extremely rapid relative to its host expansion to eight native rat species in Eurasia in ~ 16 million years since it diverged from P. serrata. The host expansion of P. spinulosa is remarkable for a blood-sucking louse and is in stark contrast to the absence of host expansion by P. serrata and H. pacifica. Comparison among these three introduced sucking lice indicated that both louse-specific factors and host-specific factors can contribute to the success or failure of host expansion.

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Title: Rapid host expansion of an introduced parasite, the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae), among endemic rodents in Australia
Authors: Wei Wang (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Science and Engineering
Lance A Durden (Author) - Georgia Southern University, United States
Renfu Shao (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Science and Engineering
Publication details: Parasites & vectors, Vol.13, 83; 15
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
Date published: 2020
DOI: 10.1186/s13071-020-3957-y
ISSN: 1756-3305
Copyright note: Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creat ivecommons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creat iveco mmons .org/publi cdoma in/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451422202621
Output Type: Journal article

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