PARASITOLOGY, cilt.147, sa.9, ss.1019-1025, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
Nosema leptinotarsaeLipa, 1968 is a microsporidian pathogen of the Colorado potato beetle,Leptinotarsa decemlineataSay. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). To determine the phylogenetic status ofN. leptinotarsae, the 16S SSU rRNA gene was sequenced (GenBank Accession No. MN841279) and compared phylogenetically against 21 microsporidian 16S SSU rRNA sequences using neighbour-joining and maximum-parsimony methods. The per cent identities of theN. leptinotarsaeand other members of theNosema-Vairimorphaclade ranged from 78.1 to 98.5%. Pairwise phylogenetic distances between theN. leptinotarsaeand other species ranged from 0.009 to 0.320. Phylogenetic analysis shows clearly thatN. leptinotarsaeis a member of theVairimorphaclade rather than theNosemaclade. The sequence divergence and morphological traits separated theN. leptinotarsaefrom other species in theVairimorphacomplex. As a result, a new assignment ofVairimorpha leptinotarsaecomb. nov. has been implemented forN. leptinotarsaeaccording to the phylogenetical positioning in the present study.