Prochristianella sp.

Marmolejo-Guzman, Linda Yacsiri G., Iv, David, Hern, an G., andez-Mena, Castellanos-Martínez, Sheila & Aguirre-Macedo, M. Leopoldina, 2022, Linking phenotypic to genotypic metacestodes from Octopus maya of the Yucatan Peninsula, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 19, pp. 44-55 : 44-45

Prochristianella sp. , ‘ Tetraphyllidea gen. sp.’), nematodes (i.e., Spirur-

idae gen. sp., Philometridae gen. sp., Anisakidae gen. sp.), and crustacean ( Octopicola sp. ). Most of the parasites were found in larval stages except the protozoan Aggregata sp. and the crustacea Octopicola sp. , suggesting the role of O. maya as an intermediate and paratenic host in the life cycle of most of these parasites ( Hochberg, 1990; Guill´en-- Hern´andez et al., 2018a).

Cestode larvae is one of the most diverse parasitic groups infecting O. maya . The most abundant (1034 parasites on average) and prevalent (up to 98%) is the unidentified species of genus Prochristianella . (order Trypanorhyncha ) (Guill´en-Hern´andez et al., 2018a). Prochristianella sp. primarily infects the anterior salivary glands of the octopus and destroy the epithelial secretory gland cells causing haemocytic infiltration, replacement of glandular tissue by connective tissue and, presumably, dysfunction of salivary gland cells (Guill´en-Hern´andez et al., 2018b; Cruz-Quintana et al., 2019).

Knowledge about cephalopod parasitology has increased in the last decade, however, some gaps remain to be unresolved such as the

* Corresponding author.

E-mail addresses: [e-mail] (L.Y.G. Marmolejo-Guzm´an), [e-mail] (D.I.G. Hern´andez-Mena), scastellanos44@uabc. edu.mx (S. Castellanos-Martínez), [e-mail] (M.L. Aguirre-Macedo).

https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2022.08.001

Received 10 June 2022; Received in revised form 3 August 2022; Accepted 4 August 2022

Available online 9 August 2022

2213-2244 /© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian Society for Parasitology. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND identification of helminth larval stages ( Roumbedakis et al., 2018). Metacestodes from the order Trypanorhyncha , ‘Tetraphyllidea’, and Onchoproteocephalidea have been recorded in different cephalopod species, mainly infecting the digestive tract ( Hochberg, 1990; Caira and Jensen, 2017; Roumbedakis et al., 2018; Tedesco et al., 2020). The precise identification of some species in larval stages are complicated since it requires observing the morphological features exhibited by adult stages, lacking in metacestodes. Hence, molecular markers (18S and 28S rDNA) and phylogenetics, coupled with morphological data that are being used to identify metacestodes as precisely as possible ( Tedesco et al., 2020; Ad´an-Torres et al., 2022).

In the present study, we aim to identify the cestodes parasitizing O. maya in areas of its distribution in Yucatan using both morphological and molecular data. This study is important to complement the data yet available and increase our knowledge about the parasite life cycles and the role of cephalopods in cestodes biology.