Data from: On the specificity of avian blood parasites: revealing specific and generalist relationships between haemosporidians and biting midges

The study of host-parasite relationships involving vector-borne parasites requires understanding interactions between parasites and vectors. The capacity of haemosporidians to infect insects has clear evolutionary consequences for the transmission of diseases. Here we investigated (1) the associations between blood parasites, biting midges and birds and (2) the potential specificity between biting midge and haemosporidian haplotypes. A total of 629 parous biting midges Culicoides and 224 wild birds (belonging to seven species) from a locality of central Spain were examined individually to detect the presence of Haemoproteus and Plasmodium parasites by sequencing a fragment of the cytochrome B gene. Biting midges were identified morphologically and characterised on the basis of a fragment of the cytocrome c oxidase (COI) gene. Overall 12 Haemoproteus and 3 Plasmodium haplotypes were isolated and sequenced. Among them, 10 haplotypes were exclusively isolated from biting midges, three haplotypes only from birds and two haplotypes from both biting midges and birds. Biting midge haplotypes showed both specific and generalist relationships with Haemoproteus haplotypes but only generalist relationships with Plasmodium haplotypes. Several C. festivipennis and C. kibunesis haplotypes established significant coevolutionary links with Haemoproteus haplotypes. These results help to understand the specificity of vector-blood parasite interactions.

针对涉及媒介传播寄生虫的宿主-寄生虫关系开展研究，需明确寄生虫与媒介昆虫之间的相互作用机制。血孢子虫（haemosporidians）感染昆虫的能力，对疾病传播具有显著的进化效应。本研究聚焦两项核心内容：（1）血液寄生虫、吸血蠓与鸟类之间的关联模式；（2）吸血蠓与血孢子虫单倍型之间的潜在特异性。本研究对采自西班牙中部某采样区域的629只经产库蠓属（Culicoides）个体，以及隶属于7个物种的224只野生鸟类开展逐一检测：通过扩增并测序细胞色素B基因片段，以检测血变虫属（Haemoproteus）与疟原虫属（Plasmodium）寄生虫的存在情况。吸血蠓样本通过形态学方法完成物种鉴定，并基于细胞色素c氧化酶亚基I（COI）基因片段完成分子特征分型。研究共分离并测序得到12种血变虫单倍型与3种疟原虫单倍型。其中10种单倍型仅从吸血蠓样本中分离获得，3种仅从鸟类样本中分离获得，剩余2种单倍型可同时从吸血蠓与鸟类样本中分离得到。吸血蠓单倍型与血变虫单倍型之间既存在特异性宿主关联，也存在泛化宿主关联；而与疟原虫单倍型之间仅存在泛化关联。多个艳丽库蠓（C. festivipennis）与基布尼库蠓（C. kibunesis）单倍型与血变虫单倍型之间存在显著的共进化关联。本研究结果有助于深入理解媒介-血液寄生虫相互作用的特异性机制。