Rare endoparasitic Asteriomyzostomum (Annelida: Asteriomyzostomidae) from Japan, including three new species descriptions and their phylogenetic position within Myzostomida.
The rare myzostomid genus Asteriomyzostomum Jägersten, 1940 consists of two species, both parasitizing sea stars. The phylogenetic position of this genus among Myzostomida has not been previously shown using molecular data. In this study, three species of Asteriomyzostomum were collected from the Kumano Sea, Japan, and are described as A. hercules sp. nov., A. jinshou sp. nov., and A. monroeae sp. nov. Additional specimens of the genus Asteromyzostomum Wagin, 1954 were also collected from the Kumano Sea and briefly reported as Asteromyzostomum sp. A molecular phylogeny based on four gene markers (COI, 16S, 18S, H3) suggests that the three families Asteriomyzostomidae, Asteromyzostomidae, and Protomyzostomidae comprise a clade. The resulting topology of the tree indicates that a host change from Crinozoa (sea lilies and feather stars) to Asterozoa (asteroids and ophiuroids) occurred only once in the evolutionary history of Myzostomida.
['Jimi|Naoto|N|', 'Moritaki|Takeya|T|', 'Kajihara|Hiroshi|H|']
D000818:Animals D000845:Annelida D005075:Biological Evolution D019143:Evolution, Molecular D015801:Helminth Proteins D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions D007564:Japan D010140:Pacific Ocean D010802:Phylogeny D018510:RNA, Helminth D013215:Starfish
Parasite Host change Asteroid Annelids Polychaete Taxonomy