TY - JOUR

T1 - Vairimorpha ephestiae is a synonym of Vairimorpha necatrix (Opisthosporidia

T2 - Microsporidia) based on multilocus sequence analysis

AU - Malysh, Julia M.

AU - Vorontsova, Yana L.

AU - Glupov, Viktor V.

AU - Tsarev, Alexander A.

AU - Tokarev, Yuri S.

PY - 2018/10/1

Y1 - 2018/10/1

N2 - An isolate of the microsporidium Vairimorpha ephestiae (originally isolated from Ephestia kühniella) from collection of Prof. J. Weiser was propagated in a laboratory culture of Galleria mellonella. Only disporoblastic sporogony was observed and formation of octospores, characteristic of the genus Vairimorpha, never occurred. A partial nucleotide sequence of the small subunit rRNA gene (1247 bp) for this microsporidium showed 100% identity to the homologous sequences of Vairimorpha (Nosema) necatrix (Genbank accession # U11051 and # DQ996241), a microsporidium with a broad host range within the Lepidoptera. Sequence similarity of protein-coding genes (RPB1, HSP70 and actin) between V. ephestiae and V. necatrix was about 98–100%. The level of genetic polymorphism in the RPB1 locus between these two species was essentially the same as between isolates of V. necatrix. It is therefore concluded that V. ephestiae is in fact an isolate of V. necatrix and the former species should be synonymized with the latter. Though described later, V. necatrix has prevailing usage and its precedence over V. ephestiae is proposed to conserve stability and avoid confusion.

AB - An isolate of the microsporidium Vairimorpha ephestiae (originally isolated from Ephestia kühniella) from collection of Prof. J. Weiser was propagated in a laboratory culture of Galleria mellonella. Only disporoblastic sporogony was observed and formation of octospores, characteristic of the genus Vairimorpha, never occurred. A partial nucleotide sequence of the small subunit rRNA gene (1247 bp) for this microsporidium showed 100% identity to the homologous sequences of Vairimorpha (Nosema) necatrix (Genbank accession # U11051 and # DQ996241), a microsporidium with a broad host range within the Lepidoptera. Sequence similarity of protein-coding genes (RPB1, HSP70 and actin) between V. ephestiae and V. necatrix was about 98–100%. The level of genetic polymorphism in the RPB1 locus between these two species was essentially the same as between isolates of V. necatrix. It is therefore concluded that V. ephestiae is in fact an isolate of V. necatrix and the former species should be synonymized with the latter. Though described later, V. necatrix has prevailing usage and its precedence over V. ephestiae is proposed to conserve stability and avoid confusion.

KW - Microsporidia

KW - Protein coding genes

KW - Ribosomal DNA

KW - Sequence similarity

KW - Species identification

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051970389&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ejop.2018.08.004

DO - 10.1016/j.ejop.2018.08.004

M3 - Article

C2 - 30145519

AN - SCOPUS:85051970389

VL - 66

SP - 63

EP - 67

JO - European Journal of Protistology

JF - European Journal of Protistology

SN - 0932-4739

ER -