Atributos dos hospedeiros intermediários na filogenia de seus parasitos Spiruromorpha

Abstract

Intermediate hosts are often neglected in studies aimed at understanding and reconstructing the phylogeny of parasitic organisms, however it is notable that they are fundamental components in the transmission and infectivity strategies that ensured the reach and evolutionary success of these organisms in the most diverse environments, especially in Nematoda. A sampling of forty-five 18S rRNA marker sequences referring to nematode taxa belonging to the Spiruromorpha infraorder were studied with the aim of understanding the phylogenetic relationships between the parasites, their intermediate and definitive hosts. For this purpose, the influence of the intermediate host groups, as well as the composition of their diet were studied together with the vertebrate host groups through phylogenetic signal test analyses, which indicated that the categories of intermediate host groups and diet of intermediate hosts exert evolutionary influence on the group, which together with the layout of the phylogenetic tree obtained allows us to make inferences about the evolution of groups contained in the infraorder.