Characteristics of a Microsporidium (Protozoa: Microspora) Infecting Grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae) in Cape Verde, Africa

ABSTRACT A light and electron microscopic study was conducted of a microsporidium isolated from the grasshopper Pyrgomorpha cognata Krauss, 1877 collected in Santo Antão and Santiago Islands, Cape Verde. The evidence suggests that although there are some differences, such as tissues affected and size of spores, the organism appears conspecific with Nosema pyrgomorphae Toguebaye, Seck & Marchand, 1988, which was described from another species of the genus Pyrgomorpha Audinet-Serville, 1838 in Senegal. However, in addition to the differences in tissue specificity and size of spores, light microscopy studies also revealed some stages of the pathogen (uninucleate bodies and plasmodia) apparently not previously observed in N. pyrgomorphae .     

Preliminary genomic characterization of microsporidian Nosema bombycis

In order to characterize the genome of Nosema bombycis, the techniques of karyotyping, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, and polymerase chain reaction were applied. Nosema genomic DNA moved as 23 kb fragment on a standard agarose gel. The karyotype showed four chromosomes, the molecular karyotyping by pulsed field gel electrophoresis also showed four chromosomes. Arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with various primers showed amplification products of sizes ranging from 1.6 to 0.15 kb. Polymerase chain reaction with specific primer showed an amplification product of approximately 315 nucleotides. The DNA hybridizations are discussed. This is the first report of its kind on microsporidian Nosema bombycis. The current data can play a major role in elucidating the molecular biology of this parasite. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.