The artsprosjekt: Diversity mapping of Norwegian gyrodactylid flatworms - mining natural history collections

DSC02431-c.jpgNew parasites from old fish

The biodiversity of invertebrate parasites is an important factor in ecosystem health. This project targets the Norwegian gyrodactylid fauna. This group of ectoparasites of fish and cephalopod molluscs includes the major pathogen Gyrodactylus salaris on salmon and the emerging pathogen Gyrodactylus marinus on cod. Overall the genus Gyrodactylus is poorly known and many species and parasite strains await proper description. This is particularly true for the gyrodactylids on Norwegian marine fishes, where perhaps up to 50 species remain to be catalogued, and several species new to science are to be expected. This project adopts a novel approach, screening the fish collection of the Natural History Museum Oslo that has a comprehensive representation of the Norwegian fish fauna for gyrodactylids. These parasites will then be described using advanced morphometric and molecular approaches. We aim at developing towards a comprehensive picture of the Norwegian gyrodactylid fauna of both freshwater and marine fishes, and expect to add morphometric and molecular descriptions of some 30-50 species (including some new to science) to the Norwegian fauna lists.

 


Active researchers on the project are:

Lutz Bachmann (PI)
Philip D. Harris (PI)
Paula Marcotegui (PostDoc) - 01.08.2011 - 31.01.2012
Eve Zeyl (technician)

 

 

The project "Diversity mapping of Norwegian gyrodactylid flatworms - mining natural history collections" is funded for 2011-2012 by the artsprosjektet managed by ARTSDATABANKEN (The Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre).

 

 

 

project news:

!! Hot news !! G. alexanderi detected on Norwegian three-spined stickleback from Surnadal, near Trondheim (see below for details)

 

August 2011: Eve Zeyl, Paula Marcotegui, Phil Harris, and Lutz Bachmann did fieldwork on 4. august 2011 at Tjøme/Nøtterøy, Oslofjord, in order to collect fresh reference samples for comparison with collection material, and for developing and improving protocols for molecular identification and characterization of Gyrodactylus. We very much appreciate the support of Per Pethon who showed us suitable sites for sampling and instructed us in using the fishing equipment.

Here is what we got .

Species Common name Number of fish
detected gyrodactylids
Gasterosteus aculeatus Three-spined stickleback
18
 many G. arcuatus and G. branchicus
Spinachia spinachia Fifteen-spined stickleback
1
 1 G. branchicus
Gobius niger Black goby
10
  
Pomatoschistus microps Common goby
35
 many G. sp.
Scomber scombrus Atlantic mackerel
3
  
Pleuronectes platessa European plaice
8
 1 G. flesi
Callionymus lyra Common dragonet
2
  
Ctenolabrus rupestris Goldsinny
1
  

 

 

June 2011: Lutz Bachmann presented the project as an invited contribution to the workshop "Species discovery amongst parasitic groups" held on 20. June 2011 under the IVth Conference of the Scandinavian-Baltic Society for Parasitology, Oslo, Norway .
Flyer for the workshop

 

 

May 2011: Paula Marcotegui from University of La Plata, Argentina, received an Yggdrasil fellowship (International Mobility Stipend) from the Research Council of Norway.

She will join the project from 1. August 2011 - 31. January 2012. She will check the foreign fish from the NHM fish collection for gyrodactylids.

 

 

 

project progression:

Sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae):

Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus):
Several Gyrodactylus species have been recorded earlier from the G. aculeatus. A survey* of reports and papers revieled that so far G. arcuatus and G. branchicus were reported from the three-spined stickleback from Norway.

Several fish specimens collected 1977 in the Oslofjord area were screened, and as expected many gyrodactylids were found. They were mounted for microscopic inspection. The majority of parasites was identified as Gyrodactylus arcuatus. There may be also some other Gyrodactylus species as well, but proper identification of the mounted parasites is pending.

! ! ! On one three-spined stickleback sample from Surnadal, near Trondheim, G. alexanderi was detected. It has been suggested to be present in Western Norway, but without precise locality data. This species is an important addition to the Norwegian fauna because it is a Pacific species, found mainly on the West Coast of North America and in Japan and the Pacific coast of Siberia. In Europe, there is an unconfirmed record from Germany near Berlin (Glaser, 1987) and a number of authenticated records from the UK (Harris, 2008), where the species is thought to be a glacial relict. The working hypothesis is that this species was brought to the Atlantic basin with the initial expansion of the sticklebacks from the Pacific over 100 000 years ago (Orti et al. 1994). Recolonisation of rivers from the sea by sticklebacks after glaciation has principally led to colonisation by G. arcuatus and G. branchicus. How then did G. alexanderi persist in Norway and the UK during the last ice age? 


G. alexanderi from G. aculeatus (IHL 42/90, fish collection NHM Oslo) collected 13.09.1990 at Surnadal, near Trondheim. 
Photo: Eve Zeyl

 

Ninespine stickleback (Pungitius pungitius):

Sea stickleback (Spinachia spinachia):

 

Lumpfishes (Cyclopteridae):

Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus):
For the lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) the GyroDb database lists only one Gyrodactylus species, G. cyclopteri. To our knowledge the species has not been reported from Norwegian lumpsuckers yet.

We have checked four fish collected in 1903, 1912, and 1983, respectively, and found G. cyclopteri on three of them. The parasite occurs on fish from the Oslofjord as well as from Troms (Northern Norway).


G. cyclopteri from C. lumpus (J4258, fish collection NHM Oslo) collected 03.04.1903 at Onsø, Oslofjord.
Photo: Eve Zeyl

 

Righteye flounders (Pleuronectidae):

American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides):
Three fish have so far been screened for Gyrodactylus, two from the Oslofjord and one from the Barent Sea. No gyrodactylids were detected.


*The survey for Norwegian gyrodactylids included the following reports and papers:

Appleby, C. & Sterud, E. 1996. Parasites of white bream (Blicca bjoerkna), burbot (Lota lota) and ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua) from the River Glomma, South-Eastern Norway. Bulletin of the Scandinavian Society for Parasitology 6: 18-24.
Malmberg, G. 1970. The excretory system and marginal hooks as a basis for the systematics of Gyrodactylus (Trematoda, Monogenea). Archiv für Zoologie, 23: 1–237.
Malmberg, G. 1993. Gyrodactylidae and gyrodactylosis of Salmonidae. Bulletin Francais de Peche et de la Pisciculture. Boves 328: 5-46.
Sterud, E. & Appleby, C. 1996. Parasites of common asp (Aspius aspius), bream (Abramis brama) and zander (Stizostedion lucioperca) from the river Nitelva.' Bulletin of the Scandinavian Society for Parasitology 6: 134-138.
Sterud, E. 1999. Parasitter hos norske ferskvannsfisk. Norsk Zoologist Forening. Rapport. Oslo. 7: 22 pp.
Thoen, E., Haugland, O., Sterud, E. 1998. Parasites of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) from the River Akerselva, Oslo, Norway. Bulletin of the Scandinavian Society for Parasitology 8: 92-96.