MalAvi: a public database of malaria parasites and related haemosporidians in avian hosts based on mitochondrial cytochrome b lineages
MalAvi: a public database of malaria parasites and related haemosporidians in avian hosts based on mitochondrial cytochrome b lineages
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1755-0998.2009.02692.x
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发表时间：
2009-09-01
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Perez-Tris, Javier
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bensch, Staffan;Hellgren, Olof;Perez-Tris, Javier
自从引入基于聚合酶链式反应的寄生虫鉴定方法以来，对禽血寄生虫的研究有了显着的增加。新的数据揭示了复杂的多宿主-多寄生虫系统，如果不很好地了解寄主范围和寄生虫谱系的地理分布，就很难理解这些系统。然而，这种信息目前很难从文献中或从诸如GenBank之类的通用知识库中获得，主要是因为(I)不同的研究小组使用不同的寄生虫谱系名称，(Ii)GenBank条目经常仅指每种寄生虫被采样的第一个宿主和地点，以及(Iii)不同的研究人员使用不同的基因片段来识别寄生虫谱系。我们提出了一个通过细胞色素b序列的部分区域识别的疟原虫属、血蛋白属和白细胞体属的禽类血液寄生虫的统一数据库。该数据库使用标准化的命名法来消除同义词，并将关于每种寄生虫的所有可用信息集中在一个公共参考网站上，从而便于所有研究人员访问。初始数据包括宿主物种和地点的清单，以及可用于系统发育分析的遗传标记。该数据库可免费下载，并将由作者定期更新。在发表新的谱系之前，我们鼓励研究人员指定与现有数据库匹配的名称。我们预计，数据库作为确定寄生虫寄主范围和地理分布的来源的价值将随着其规模的扩大而增长，并大大加强对这一极其多样化的寄生虫群体的了解。
Research in avian blood parasites has seen a remarkable increase since the introduction of polymerase chain reaction-based methods for parasite identification. New data are revealing complex multihost-multiparasite systems which are difficult to understand without good knowledge of the host range and geographical distribution of the parasite lineages. However, such information is currently difficult to obtain from the literature, or from general repositories such as GenBank, mainly because (i) different research groups use different parasite lineage names, (ii) GenBank entries frequently refer only to the first host and locality at which each parasite was sampled, and (iii) different researchers use different gene fragments to identify parasite lineages. We propose a unified database of avian blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon identified by a partial region of their cytochrome b sequences. The database uses a standardized nomenclature to remove synonymy, and concentrates all available information about each parasite in a public reference site, thereby facilitating access to all researchers. Initial data include a list of host species and localities, as well as genetic markers that can be used for phylogenetical analyses. The database is free to download and will be regularly updated by the authors. Prior to publication of new lineages, we encourage researchers to assign names to match the existing database. We anticipate that the value of the database as a source for determining host range and geographical distribution of the parasites will grow with its size and substantially enhance the understanding of this remarkably diverse group of parasites.