Dataset Information

Rhodnius prolixus Colonization and Trypanosoma cruzi Transmission in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) Plantations in the Orinoco Basin, Colombia.

ABSTRACT: Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas disease that infects more than seven million people in Latin America. The parasite is transmitted by triatomine insects, of which some species are often associated with palms. The establishment of oil palm plantations (Elaeis guineensis) in the Orinoco region (Colombia) has been rapidly growing, possibly constituting a new environment for the establishment and increase in triatomine populations. In this study, the potential of Rhodnius prolixus to colonize E. guineensis plantations and maintain T. cruzi transmission was assessed. Fieldwork was conducted in two areas located in the department of Casanare for sampling E. guineensis and Attalea butyracea palms, sampling for triatomines to determine their abundance and prevalence of T. cruzi infection. To assess T. cruzi transmission potential in the area, sylvatic and domestic mammals were sampled. Results showed that palm infestation with triatomines was higher in A. butyracea than in E. guineensis palms and T. cruzi infection in triatomines varied between habitats for one study area, but was constant in the other site. Trypanosoma cruzi-infected mammals in the E. guineensis plantations were mainly generalist rodents, suggesting that these mammals could have an important role in T. cruzi transmission in plantations. In conclusion, E. guineensis plantations in the Orinoco region are suitable habitats for R. prolixus and T. cruzi transmission.

SUBMITTER: Erazo D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7356441 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rhodnius prolixus Colonization and Trypanosoma cruzi Transmission in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) Plantations in the Orinoco Basin, Colombia.

Erazo Diana D González Camila C Guhl Felipe F Umaña Juan Daniel JD Morales-Betancourt Juan Alejandro JA Cordovez Juan J

The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene 20200521 1

Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas disease that infects more than seven million people in Latin America. The parasite is transmitted by triatomine insects, of which some species are often associated with palms. The establishment of oil palm plantations (Elaeis guineensis) in the Orinoco region (Colombia) has been rapidly growing, possibly constituting a new environment for the establishment and increase in triatomine populations. In this study, the potential of <i ...[more]

PMID: 32458775

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Project description:BackgroundChagas disease, affecting approximately eight million individuals in tropical regions, is primarily transmitted by vectors. Rhodnius prolixus, a triatomine vector, commonly inhabits in ecotopes with diverse palm tree species, creating optimal conditions for vector proliferation. This study aims to explore the transmission ecology of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative parasite of Chagas disease, by investigating the feeding patterns and natural infection rates of R. prolixus specimens collected from various wild palm species in the Colombian Orinoco region.Materials and methodsTo achieve this objective, we sampled 35 individuals from three palm species (Attalea butyracea, Acrocomia aculeata, and Mauritia flexuosa) in a riparian forest in the Casanare department of eastern Colombia, totaling 105 sampled palm trees. DNA was extracted and analyzed from 115 R. prolixus specimens at different developmental stages using quantitative PCR (qPCR) for T. cruzi detection and identification of discrete typing units. Feeding preferences were determined by sequencing the 12S rRNA gene amplicon through next-generation sequencing.ResultsA total of 676 R. prolixus specimens were collected from the sampled palms. The study revealed variation in population densities and developmental stages of R. prolixus among palm tree species, with higher densities observed in A. butyracea and lower densities in M. flexuosa. TcI was the exclusive T. cruzi discrete typing unit (DTU) found, with infection frequency positively correlated with R. prolixus abundance. Insects captured in A. butyracea exhibited higher abundance and infection rates than those from other palm species. The feeding sources comprised 13 mammal species, showing no significant differences between palm species in terms of blood sources. However, Didelphis marsupialis and Homo sapiens were present in all examined R. prolixus, and Dasypus novemcinctus was found in 89.47% of the insects.ConclusionThis study highlights the significance of wild palms, particularly A. butyracea, as a substantial risk factor for T. cruzi transmission to humans in these environments. High population densities and infection rates of R. prolixus were observed in each examined palm tree species.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is one of the most important oil bearing crops in the world. However, genetic improvement of oil palm through conventional breeding is extremely slow and costly, as the breeding cycle can take up to 10 years. This has brought about interest in vegetative propagation of oil palm. Since the introduction of oil palm tissue culture in the 1970s, clonal propagation has proven to be useful, not only in producing uniform planting materials, but also in the development of the genetic engineering programme. Despite considerable progress in improving the tissue culture techniques, the callusing and embryogenesis rates from proliferating callus cultures remain very low. Thus, understanding the gene diversity and expression profiles in oil palm tissue culture is critical in increasing the efficiency of these processes. RESULTS: A total of 12 standard cDNA libraries, representing three main developmental stages in oil palm tissue culture, were generated in this study. Random sequencing of clones from these cDNA libraries generated 17,599 expressed sequence tags (ESTs). The ESTs were analysed, annotated and assembled to generate 9,584 putative unigenes distributed in 3,268 consensi and 6,316 singletons. These unigenes were assigned putative functions based on similarity and gene ontology annotations. Cluster analysis, which surveyed the relatedness of each library based on the abundance of ESTs in each consensus, revealed that lipid transfer proteins were highly expressed in embryogenic tissues. A glutathione S-transferase was found to be highly expressed in non-embryogenic callus. Further analysis of the unigenes identified 648 non-redundant simple sequence repeats and 211 putative full-length open reading frames. CONCLUSION: This study has provided an overview of genes expressed during oil palm tissue culture. Candidate genes with expression that are modulated during tissue culture were identified. However, in order to confirm whether these genes are suitable as early markers for embryogenesis, the genes need to be tested on earlier stages of tissue culture and a wider range of genotypes. This collection of ESTs is an important resource for genetic and genome analyses of the oil palm, particularly during tissue culture development.

Dataset Information

Rhodnius prolixus Colonization and Trypanosoma cruzi Transmission in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) Plantations in the Orinoco Basin, Colombia.

Publications

<i>Rhodnius prolixus</i> Colonization and <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i> Transmission in Oil Palm (<i>Elaeis guineensis</i>) Plantations in the Orinoco Basin, Colombia.

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