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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #336936
Research Project: Biting Arthropod Surveillance and Control

Location: Mosquito and Fly Research

Title: Description and phylogeny of a new microsporidium from the elm leaf beetle, Xanthogaleruca luteola Muller, 1766 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

Author
item BEKIRCAN, ÇAGRI - Karadeniz Technical University
item BÜLBÜL, UFUK - Karadeniz Technical University
item GÜLER, HALIL - Karadeniz Technical University
item Becnel, James

Submitted to: Parasitology Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/11/2016
Publication Date: 12/16/2016
Citation: Bekircan, Ç., Bülbül, U., Güler, H.I., Becnel, J.J. 2016. Description and phylogeny of a new microsporidium from the elm leaf beetle, Xanthogaleruca luteola Muller, 1766 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Parasitology Research. doi:10.1007/s00436-016-5349-y.

Interpretive Summary: Naturally occurring protozoan parasites (Microsporidia) of insects are under study to evaluate and develop these disease causing organisms as biological control agents. Microsporidian parasites are known to cause mortality in insects worldwide, but fundamental knowledge on the biology and life cycles are unknown. This taxonomic study has examined a new species of microsporidia from beetles and examined the relationship to related insects. The new information obtained here contributes to our basic understanding of the diversity of these parasites which will assist in the evaluation and development of microsporidia as pathogens of as biocontrol agents.

Technical Abstract: This study describes a new genus and species of microsporidia which is a pathogen of the elm leaf beetle, Xanthogaleruca luteola Muller, 1776 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). The beetles were collected from Istanbul in Turkey. All developmental stages are uninucleate and in direct contact with the host cell cytoplasm. Giemsa-stained mature spores are oval in shape and measured 3.40 ± 0.37 µm in length and 1.63 ± 0.20 µm in width. These uninucleate spores have an isofilar polar filament with 11 turns. The spore wall was trilaminar (75 to 115 nm) with a rugose, electron-dense exospore (34 to 45 nm) and a thickened, electron-lucent endospore (65 to 80 nm) overlaying the plasmalemma. Morphological, ultrastructural, and molecular features indicate that the described microsporidium is dissimilar to all known microsporidian taxa and confirm that it has different taxonomic characters than other microsporidia infecting X. luteola and is named here as Rugispora istanbulensis n. gen., n. sp.