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CALYPTOSPORA FUNDULI (APICOMPLEXA): LIFE CYCLE AND TAXONOMY
Citation:
Fournie, J W., W. K. Vogelbein, R. M. Overstreet, AND W. E. Hawkins. CALYPTOSPORA FUNDULI (APICOMPLEXA): LIFE CYCLE AND TAXONOMY. Presented at 5th International Symposium on Fish Parasites, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, August 9-13, 1999.
Description:
The taxonomic status of the extraintestinal piscine coccidium Calyptospora funduli is based in part on its requirement of an intermediate host (the daggerblade grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio). Grass shrimp fed livers of Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) infected with sporulated oocysts of C. funduli exhibited numerous sporozoites suspended in the intestinal contents when examined by light microscopy of fresh squash preparations. Using this method, we did not see sporozoites in intestinal epithelial cells of the grass shrimp on in any other cell types. Ultrastructural examination, however, revealed sporozoites in the cytoplasm of the gut basal cells. Cross sections of 1 to 13 sporozoites were seen within a single cell, and those sporozoites each appeared to be situated in individual membrane-bound vesicles rather than in a single parasitophorous vacuole. These ultrastructural observations indicate that in the grass shrimp intermediate host, sporozoites which develop there into an infective stage probably undergo that development in gut mucosal basal cells. Prior studies revealed that these sporozoites modified their structure over 4 to 5 days and that before that time they were not infective to the fish host. Following ingestion of an infected shrimp by a killifish, the infective sporozoites apparently reach the liver of their killifish definitive hosts by the bloodstream. Sporozoites were seen in blood smears from the longnose killifish, Fundulus similis, 4 hours after fish were fed experimentally infected grass shrimp. Additionally, coccidian trophozoites and early meronts were seen in hepatocytes from several longnose killifish at 48, 72, and 96 hours postinfection. This study, in conjunction with previous findings, clearly confirms that a true intermediate host is required in the life cycle of C. funduli, that a developmental period of about 5 days in the grass shrimp is necessary for sporozoites to become infective to killifishes, and that sporozoites do occur