The prevalence and immune response to coinfection by avian haemosporidians in wild Eurasian blackbirds Turdus merula

Journal of Ornithology -

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) have long been recognized as sensitive indicators of environmental conditions, and historical records reveal that associations between climate, landscape, wildlife, and di...

Migrating animals are thought to be important spillover sources for novel pathogens. Haemosporidians (malaria-related parasites) are one such group of pathogens that commonly spillover into novel hos....

South America has a remarkable genetic diversity of avian haemosporidians, yet only a few species have been described combining molecular and morphological data. This study introduces Plasmodium (Nov...

Migrating animals are thought to be important spillover sources for novel pathogens. Haemosporidians (malaria-related parasites) are one such group of pathogens that commonly spillover into novel hos....

Journal of Ornithology - Endangered species may suffer from parasites due to their typically small populations, such as the critically endangered Araripe Manakin (Antilophia bokermanni). Its risk...

Avian haemosporidians are common vector-transmitted parasites that infect birds. Although avian haemosporidians have been studied extensively in songbirds, less is known about haemosporidian prevalenc...

Avian malaria parasites and related haemosporidians include a highly diverse group of parasites infecting wild birds worldwide, with variable knowledge depending on bird taxa. Although comparatively l...

Avian haemosporidians are widely distributed; however, the role of migratory and non-migratory birds, as well as environmental conditions, is incompletely understood. A histogram of the number of par...

Endangered species may suffer from parasites due to their typically small populations, such as the critically endangered Araripe Manakin (Antilophia bokermanni). Its risk of infection is great, with o...

Avian haemosporidians are widely distributed; however, the role of migratory and non-migratory birds, as well as environmental conditions, is incompletely understood. A histogram of the number of par...

Avian malaria parasites form a highly prevalent and genetically diverse group within the haemosporidians, yet they have long been overlooked relative to their human- and rodent-infecting counterparts. Among these, parasites of the genus Haemoproteus (Haemosporida, Haemoproteidae) are widespread and prevalent blood parasites of birds, transmitted by louse flies (Hippoboscidae) and biting midges (Ceratopogonidae). Recent phylogenomic analyses place Haemoproteus parasites at the root of the haemosporidian tree, making genomic data from these taxa essential for understanding the evolutionary origins of malaria parasites. To date, only two avian Plasmodium and one avian Haemoproteus genomes have been sequenced. We present the first assembled genome of Haemoproteus majoris (lineage WW2), a common blood parasite of passerine birds. As avian erythrocytes are nucleated, parasite DNA was enriched by FACS-based sorting to discriminate and isolate the parasite from host cell nuclei prior to whole-genome amplification. The genome was assembled using Nanopore long-read sequencing and polished with Illumina short-reads, yielding 145 contigs with a total assembly size of 23.9Mb and a G+C content of 27.85%. Genome annotation identified 5501 protein-coding genes, 69 non-coding RNA genes, and 57 long terminal repeat retrotransposons (LRT-RTs), including one full-length element. This genomic resource represents a critical step towards elucidating the evolutionary history and genomic architecture of avian malaria parasites.