Related Experiment Videos
Coevolution between Lamellodiscus (Monogenea: Diplectanidae) and Sparidae (Teleostei): the study of a complex
Yves Desdevises1, Serge Morand, Olivier Jousson
1Centre de Biologie et d'Ecologie Tropicale et Méditerranéenne, UMR CNRS 5555, Université de Perpignan, 52 Avenue de Villeneuve, F-66860 Perpignan Cedex, France. desdevises@obs-banyuls.fr
Abstract:
Host-parasite coevolution was studied between Sparidae (Teleostei) fishes and their parasites of the genus Lamellodiscus (Monogenea, Diplectanidae) in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Molecular phylogenies were reconstructed for both groups. The phylogenctic tree of the Sparidae was obtained from previously published 16S mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences associated with new cytochrome-b mtDNA sequences via a "total evidence" procedure. The phylogeny of Lamellodiscus species was reconstructed from 18S rDNA sequences that we obtained. Host-parasite coevolution was studied through different methods: TreeFitter, TreeMap, and a new method, ParaFit. If the cost of a host switch is not assumed to be high for parasites, all methods agree on the absence of widespread cospeciation processes in this host-parasite system. Host-parasite associations were interpreted to be due more to ecological factors than to coevolutionary processes. Host specificity appeared not to be related to host-parasite cospeciation.