ArticleParasites & vectors2025
Host switching is the main driver of coevolution between Hepatozoon parasites and their vertebrate hosts.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Eco-epidemiology ofInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2026Article
- Phylogenetic and histopathological characterization of putative Hepatozoon ophisauri-like lineages in rodents from Italy.Acta parasitologica · 2026Article
- Hepatozoon martis in Italy: first evidence based on histopathological characterization and molecular confirmation in Martes foina.Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- Molecular detection and phylogeny ofFrontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Partners in time: Cospeciation and host-switching shape the evolution of Leishmania parasites.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundHepatozoon spp. are apicomplexan parasites with a heteroxenous life cycles, involving vertebrate intermediate hosts and invertebrate definitive hosts. These parasites infect a wide variety of wild and domestic vertebrates causing subclinical infection or mild-to-severe clinical manifestations, depending on the parasite species and vertebrate host. Interestingly, each Hepatozoon spp. have a specific host range, suggesting a close host-parasite coevolutionary relationship.
methodsHepatozoon sequences deposited between 2013 and 2023 were mined from GenBank to test which was the most employed marker for this parasite. We reconstructed the host and parasite phylogenies using 18S rDNA and cytB sequences, respectively. Subsequent analyses were stratified according to host vertebrate orders (Carnivora, Rodentia, and Squamata), and the corresponding sequences of their Hepatozoon parasites. Then, Procrustean Approach to Cophylogeny (PACo) and ParaFit were employed to assess their global cophylogenetic relationships. In addition, eMPRess was used to estimate the most probable co-evolutionary events, such as host switch, duplication, sorting, or cospeciation, accounting for the shared evolutionary history of Hepatozoon spp. and their vertebrate hosts.
resultsGlobal assessments of congruence between phylogenies of carnivore, rodent, and squamate hosts and those of their Hepatozoon parasites were significant (PACo: all m
conclusionsThese findings highlight the ability of Hepatozoon spp. associated to certain vertebrate orders to infect those with a close phylogenetic relationship. This in turn helps to understand how hepatozoonosis can emerge in susceptible hosts within specific geographical areas by spillover events.
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