Abstract
BackgroundAlthough widely used in medicine, the application of three-dimensional (3D) imaging to parasitology appears limited to date. In this study, developmental stages of a marine fish haemogregarine, Haemogregarina curvata (Apicomplexa: Adeleorina), were investigated in their leech vector, Zeylanicobdella arugamensis; this involved 3D visualisation of brightfield and confocal microscopy images of histological sections through infected leech salivary gland cells.Findings3D assessment demonstrated the morphology of the haemogregarine stages, their spatial layout, and their relationship with enlarged host cells showing reduced cellular content. Haemogregarine meronts, located marginally within leech salivary gland cells, had small tail-like connections to the host cell limiting membrane; this parasite-host cell interface was not visible in two-dimensional (2D) light micrographs and no records of a similar connection in apicomplexan development have been traced.ConclusionsThis is likely the first account of the use of 3D visualisation to study developmental stages of an apicomplexan parasite in its invertebrate vector. Elucidation of the extent of development of the haemogregarine within the leech salivary cells, together with the unusual connections between meronts and the host cell membrane, illustrates the future potential of 3D visualisation in parasite-vector biology.
Highlights
Widely used in medicine, the application of three-dimensional (3D) imaging to parasitology appears limited to date
The life cycle for H. curvata is shown in Figure 1, including sporozoite, merozoite and meront stages imaged in the current study (Figure 1O-R)
* Correspondence: p.hayes@kingston.ac.uk 1School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE, UK Full list of author information is available at the end of the article. This apicomplexan was only the third valid species of marine fish haemogregarine to have been named from South Africa [11,12,15,16,17,18], and the only species from this region for which developmental stages within a leech vector have been described [11]
Summary
Widely used in medicine, the application of three-dimensional (3D) imaging to parasitology appears limited to date. Conclusions: This is likely the first account of the use of 3D visualisation to study developmental stages of an apicomplexan parasite in its invertebrate vector. Elucidation of the extent of development of the haemogregarine within the leech salivary cells, together with the unusual connections between meronts and the host cell membrane, illustrates the future potential of 3D visualisation in parasite-vector biology.
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