Cysteine Proteinase C1A Paralog Profiles Correspond with Phylogenetic Lineages of Pathogenic Piroplasmids

Abstract

Piroplasmid parasites comprising of Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon are transmitted by ticks to farm and pet animals and have a significant impact on livestock industries and animal health in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. In addition, diverse Babesia spp. infect humans as opportunistic hosts. Molecular phylogeny has demonstrated at least six piroplasmid lineages exemplified by B. microti, B. duncani, C. felis, T. equi, Theileria sensu stricto (T. annulata, T. parva, and T. orientalis) and Babesia sensu stricto (B. bovis, B. bigemina, and B. ovis). C1A cysteine-proteinases (C1A-Cp) are papain-like enzymes implicated in pathogenic and vital steps of the parasite life cycle such as nutrition and host cell egress. An expansion of C1A-Cp of T. annulata and T. parva with respect to B. bovis and B. ovis was previously described. In the present work, C1A-Cp paralogs were identified in available genomes of species pertaining to each piroplasmid lineage. Phylogenetic analysis revealed eight C1A-Cp groups. The profile of C1A-Cp paralogs across these groups corroborates and defines the existence of six piroplasmid lineages. C. felis, T. equi and Theileria s.s. each showed characteristic expansions into extensive families of C1A-Cp paralogs in two of the eight groups. Underlying gene duplications have occurred as independent unique evolutionary events that allow distinguishing these three piroplasmid lineages. We hypothesize that C1A-Cp paralog families may be associated with the advent of the schizont stage. Differences in the invertebrate tick host specificity and/or mode of transmission in piroplasmid lineages might also be associated with the observed C1A-Cp paralog profiles.

1. Introduction

Piroplasmids are tick-transmitted obligatory hemoprotozoan parasites including species of the genus Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon. Many species are of veterinary significance, either due to their negative economic impact on livestock industries or due to the diseases they cause in pets and occasionally in wild life [1,2,3]. Examples of the former group include Babesia bovis and/or B. bigemina causing bovine babesiosis of cattle; Theileria annulata, Theileria parva, and Theileria orientalis that cause tropical theileriosis, East Coast Fever, and oriental theileriosis of cattle, respectively; and Babesia ovis causing ovine babesiosis of sheep [4,5,6,7,8]. Piroplasmids that infect companion animals include Cytauxzoon felis, the causative agent of feline cytauxzoonosis, and Theileria equi and Babesia caballi causing equine piroplasmosis [9,10,11,12]. In addition, a third group of piroplasmid species has been reported as pathogens of human babesiosis including B. microti, B. duncani, and B. venatorum, while B. divergens infects both cattle and humans [2,13,14,15,16].

Classical taxonomy distinguishes four piroplasmid genera based on morphology and/or biological characteristics of their life cycle history. (i) Babesia sensu stricto (s.s.) shows typically a transovarial transmission by Rhipicephalus or Hyalomma ticks; (ii) Theileria sensu stricto (s.s.) and (iii) Cytauxzoon spp. are typically transstadially transmitted, the former by Haemaphysalis and Hyalomma ticks and the latter by Dermacentor and Amblyomma ticks. In addition, Theileria and Cytauxzoon are characterized by the presence of an additional intraleukocytic schizont stage, which in Theileria is present in macrophages and T and B lymphocytes whereas in Cytauxzoon in mononuclear phagocytes. Finally, a fourth piroplasmid group is referred to as (iv) Babesia sensu lato (s.l.) which are commonly transmitted transstadially by ticks of the genus Ixodes but cannot be classified as Theileria (s.s.) since schizonts are absent [17,18,19].

Importantly, molecular phylogenetic analysis based on the 18S rRNA gene has been able to largely confirm the above outlined classical taxonomic units, yet could further refine and improve their relationship resulting in the definition of six piroplasmid genera [2,20]. Nearly complete agreement between classical taxonomy and molecular phylogeny has been shown for the Babesia s.s. and Theileria s.s. groups (Clades VI and V, respectively, as defined by Schnittger et al. [2]). It is however noteworthy that it could be shown that Theileria equi does not belong to Theileria s.s. but represents with B. bicornis a separate monophyletic group (Clade IV as defined by Schnittger et al. [2]), a finding that was subsequently confirmed by whole genome and mitochondrial gene analysis [21,22]. Furthermore, findings based on 18S rRNA phylogenetic analysis strongly suggests that the genus Cytauxzoon represents a monophyletic group that can be clearly delineated from Theileria s.s. (Clade IIIb as defined by Schnittger et al. [2]). However, using mitochondrial genes, Schreeg et al. [22] could integrate C. felis as sister group of Theileria s.s. into a single taxon with good support. By molecular phylogeny it was possible to show that Babesia s.l. parasites represent a paraphyletic group which is distantly related to Babesia s.s. and more closely related to Theileria and Cytauxzoon parasites. Furthermore, the Babesia s.l. group can be distinguished into at least two genera (Clade I and Clade II as defined by Schnittger et al. [2], Lack et al. [20], Schreeg et al. [22]). Meanwhile, it is worth noting that additional piroplasmid genera have been identified that are not considered in the present study as no genome sequences are available from species pertaining to these groups [23,24].

Cysteine proteinases (Cps) are involved in vital steps of the apicomplexan life cycle such as host cell invasion, egress, and parasite nutrition [25,26,27]. Papain-like cysteine peptidases designated as C1A family (C1 family of the Clan CA) attracted particular interest because of their involvement in pathogenic processes such as intracellular hemoglobin degradation and cytoskeletal rupture during host cell egress, as described for falcipain of Plasmodium falciparum [28,29,30].

C1A falcipain-homologs bovipain, ovipain, and babesipain of B. bovis, B. ovis, and B. bigemina, respectively, have been characterized [31,32,33,34]. Interestingly, whereas only a single bovipain and ovipain encoding gene is present in the B. bovis and B. ovis-genome, this gene has expanded in a gene family encoding six and seven paralogs in T. parva and T. annulata, respectively [31,35,36]. It has been suggested that the augmented copy number of falcipain-orthologs in T. annulata and T. parva reflects the biological differences of this piroplasmid lineage compared to B. bovis such as the distinct tick host specificity, transstadial vs. transovarial transmission, and presence vs. absence of the schizont parasite stage [36,37,38].

In this study, all C1A cysteine proteinases (C1A-Cp) were mined from available genomes of pathogenic Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon piroplasmids appertaining to Clades I to VI as defined by Schnittger et al. [2]. A phylogenetic tree was constructed to allocate C1A-Cp paralogs into different evolutionary groups (C1A-Cp Groups 1–8). We hypothesized that the profile of C1A-Cp paralogs across revealed evolutionary group is specific and corresponds with the phylogenetic classification of piroplasmids into Clades I to VI, as previously suggested.

2. Materials and Methods

The amino acid sequence of C1A family holotype, Peptidase_C1 (PF00112, Pfam), was used in a BLASTp search adjusting parameter settings to piroplasmid sequences (taxid:5863) and refseq database in order to identify homologs in completely sequenced genomes of piroplasmid species from B. bigemina strain BOND [39], B. bovis strain T2Bo [40], B. microti strain RI [41], T. annulata strain Ankara [42], T. equi strain WA [21], T. orientalis strain Shintoku [43], and T. parva strain Muguga, [44]. Since the C. felis genome is not available in the GenBank, corresponding C1A-Cp have been retrieved using a similar approach from the PiroplasmaDB database (C. felis strain Winnie [45]). In addition, C1A-Cp sequences of B. duncani and B. ovis have been retrieved by courtesy from as yet public unavailable genomes (B. duncani strain WA1: Choukri Ben Mamoun, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; B. ovis strain Israel: William Weir, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK). Following the above described procedure, all sequence hits with an E-value < 0.05 were subsequently included in the study. The C1A-Cp proteinase domain of each sequence was determined either by MEROPS (http://merops.sanger.ac.uk) and/or Pfam (http://pfam.xfam.org) and then aligned using the MUSCLE algorithm. To eliminate end gaps, the alignment was finally truncated at its C and N terminal to a length of 315 aa. The phylogenetic tree was constructed using maximum likelihood based on the model LG [46]. Briefly, initial tree(s) for the heuristic search were obtained by applying the Neighbor-Joining method to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using a JTT model. Then, the best evolutionary model, determined based on Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) as LG + G (G = 1.4880, estimated over five categories) was applied to infer the tree. The analysis involved eighty-three amino acid sequences, of which eighty-two belong to C1A-Cp of Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon spp., and falcipain-2 of P. falciparum was used as an outgroup. Altogether 1000 bootstrap replicates were carried out. Bootstrap values ≥80 were considered as highly significant. Alignment, model search, and tree construction was carried out using MEGA 6 [47]. Orthology was inferred by bidirectional best hits (BBH) in pairwise genome comparisons using pBLAST. However, as the C. felis, B. ovis and B. duncani genomes are not available in GenBank, BBH could not be carried out for these species.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Molecular Phylogeny Allows Subgrouping of Piroplasmid C1A Cysteine Proteinases

The aim of this work was to compare C1A-Cp homologs across genomes of well-defined and evolutionary diverse piroplasmid species to assess whether paralog numbers and variant profiles support current piroplasmid taxonomy.

A total of eighty-two cysteine proteinase-homologs (including orthologs and paralogs) of the subfamily C1A were identified in the ten studied piroplasmid genomes appertaining to six different evolutionary lineages (Table 1). Sixty-six of the eighty-two C1A-Cp displayed the conserved functional amino acids glutamine, cysteine, histidine, and asparagine at catalytic active sites, whereas fourteen showed substitutions and/or gaps at these positions representing enzymatically non-functional proteinase homologs. Based on the inferred phylogenetic tree, C1A-Cp could be divided in altogether eight groups designated, Groups 1–8 (Figure 1). In addition to the displayed maximum likelihood tree, a neighbor joining tree was also inferred resulting in similar groupings. Noteworthy these groupings are neither recognized by MEROPS nor by Pfam evidencing the sensitivity of our approach.

Table 1.

Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon parasites included in this study and their classical taxonomy, molecular phylogeny, common designation, diseases, and geographic distribution.

Species	Classic Taxonomy	3 Phylogenetic Clade	Common Designation	Diseases	Geographic Distribution
B. microti	Babesia s.l.	I	B. microti-group	human babesiosis	USA, Europe, Japan,
B. duncani		II	4 western clade	human babesiosis	USA
1 T. bicornis		IIIa	Theileria s.l.	n.d.	Africa
C. felis	Cytauxzoon	IIIb	Cytauxzoon	feline cytauxzoonosis	USA
T. equi	2Theileria s.s.	IV	5 T. equi	6 equine piroplasmosis	tropical and subtropical regions worldwide
T. annulata T. parva T. orientalis	Theileria s.s.	V	true Theileria	tropical theileriosis East Coast Fever oriental theileriosis	tropical and subtropical regions of the old world East Africa Asia
B. bovis B. bigemina B. ovis	Babesia s.s.	VI	true Babesia	7 bovine babesiosis ovine babesiosis	tropical and subtropical regions worldwide

¹ No sequenced genome is available for any species of Clade IIIa but for the sake of completeness T. bicornis has been included in this table; ² T. equi has been described by classical taxonomy as Theileria s.s. [9]; ³ Clades are designated as defined by Schnittger et al. [2]; ⁴ Piroplasmid species that place in this clade have now also been described in other geographic regions besides the US western states Washington and California [48]; ⁵ T. equi segregates with B. bicornis in a single Clade IV; ⁶ The disease referred to as equine piroplasmosis is caused by infection with T. equi and/or B. caballi; ⁷ bovine babesiosis is caused by infection with B. bovis and/or B. bigemina. n.d., no data available.

Figure 1.

Maximum likelihood tree of C1A proteinase amino acid domains of Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon parasites. Each C1A cysteine proteinase sequence is designated with the corresponding piroplasmid species and accession number. Numbers 1–8 designate revealed C1A cysteine proteinase Groups 1–8. OG, outgroup. Bootstrap values based on 1000 replicates are displayed next to the branches.

3.2. Molecular Phylogeny Provides Evidence for Independent Duplication Events of C1A-Cp in Different Piroplasmid Lineages

In the phylogenetic tree, at least four monophyletic lineages of CpA-Cp homologs are strongly supported that precede piroplasmid speciation (Figure 1). Group 1 consists of a single C1A-Cp of B. microti which segregates as sister to Group 2, although with a non-significant support. An analogous situation is observed for each B. microti C1A-Cp of Groups 4 and 6 which place as sisters in relation to Groups 5 and 7, respectively, likewise with a non-significant bootstrap. We consider each of the B. microti-C1A-Cp of Groups 1, 4, and 6 a group of their own, since they neither show a significant relation to each other nor to any other of the remaining groups. We consider that this observation reflects a loss of phylogenetic signal in these sequences supporting the ancient evolutionary relationship of B. microti (Clade I) to all other piroplasmid species of Clade II to VI, as has been reported previously [2,20,49]. As B. microti sequences were not included in the phylogenetic analysis of Martins et al. [36], corresponding groups do not appear in their study.

Interestingly, in Group 2, the C1A-Cp proteinase of C. felis (Clade IIIb) places with strong support as sister to T. annulata and T. orientalis (Theileria s.s., Clade V) sequences. A truncated C1A-Cp of T. parva has not been included in the tree analysis, while C1A-Cp of other piroplasmid species might have gone lost in this group. This group is related with the SERA Cp-family from P. falciparum of which some members have serine instead cysteine in the active site [50].

Except for B. microti, Group 3 includes C1A-Cp of all studied piroplasmid species and is very well supported. C1A-Cps of this group represent orthologs as confirmed by BBH and should be thus suitable to verify the phylogenetic relationship between these species. Importantly, C1A-Cps of B. duncani (Clade II), C. felis (Clade IIIb), T. equi (Clade IV), and Theileria s.s. parasites (Clade V) endorse the phylogenetic relation as established by Schnittger et al. [2] with strong support. However, the placement of Babesia s.s. proteinases (Group 3a, Clade VI) as sister group with respect to C. felis (Clade IIIb), T. equi (Clade IV), and Theileria s.s. parasites (Clade V) (Group 3b) seems to be incidental and is not supported. Interestingly, C1A-Cp of T. annulata (XP952571) and T. parva (XP764709) show serine instead of cysteine in their active site as has been also reported for some SERA proteins of P. falciparum [36,50]. The proteinases of this subgroup belong to the cathepsin L-like Cps.

Group 5 C1A-Cp are of the cathepsin C type and segregate with a strong bootstrap support. Subgroup 5a includes C1A-Cp of all studied species but B. microti. As expected, cysteine proteinases of Theileria s.s. parasites (Clade V) place as sister taxon with regard to Babesia s.s. (Clade VI) group, whereas the placement of C. felis (Clade IIIb) and T. equi (Clade IV) is unsupported.

Exclusively, Subgroup 5b includes C1A-Cp orthologs of all ten studied piroplasmids. The tree placement of C1A-Cp of B. microti (Clade I), C. felis (Clade IIIb), T. equi (Clade IV), and Theileria s.s. parasites (Clade V) agrees with the phylogenetic relation as proposed by Schnittger et al. [2]. However, the position of T. equi (Clade IV) and B. duncani (Clade II) are not supported. Thus, not surprisingly, the segregation of B. duncani as sister to Babesia s.s. (Clade VI) disagrees with the commonly accepted placement of this species. C1A-Cp proteinases of Subgroups 5a and 5b represent out-paralogs with regard to each other as duplication has preceded speciation (Table 2).

Table 2.

Assignment of C1A cysteine proteinase sequences to Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon species and clades.

2 C1A-Cp Group	1 Piroplasmid Clade
	I	II	IIIb	IV	V			VI
	B. microti	B. duncani	C. felis	T. equi	T. annulata	T. parva	T. orientalis	B. ovis	B. bovis	B. bigemina
1	XP_012650559
2			CF000928		XP_953243	3 XP_764233	XP_009692255
3		BdWA1_II1487	CF001943	XP_004828689	XP_952571	XP_764709	XP_009690157	ALJ75577	XP_001612131	XP_012766088
4	XP_012647584
5	XP_021338611	BdWA1_III2972	CF001234	XP_004832347	XP_955044	XP_763377	XP_009691533	ALJ75578	XP_001609546	XP_012768370
			CF003813	XP_004832939	XP_951829	XP_765451	XP_009690911	ALJ75579	XP_001608716	XP_012768246
6	XP_012647628
7			CF003226	XP_004828646	XP_952610	XP_764666	XP_009690112
				XP_004828875	XP_952609	XP_764667	XP_009690113			XP_012766037
				XP_004830320		XP_764668	XP_009690114
				XP_004831551			XP_009690115
				XP_004831655			XP_009692826
				XP_004831668
				XP_004833425
				XP_004833462
8		BdWA1_III3014	CF002922	XP_004830368	XP_954970	XP_763298	XP_009691605	ALJ75576	XP_001610695	XP_012769730
			CF003554	XP_004832412	XP_954972	XP_763299	XP_009691603
			CF000752	XP_004833381	XP_954973	XP_763300	XP_009691602
					XP_954974	XP_763301	XP_009691601
					XP_954976	XP_763303	XP_009691599
					XP_954975	XP 763302	XP_009691600
					XP_954971
∑ 83	4	3	8	13	13	13	15	4	4	5

¹ Piroplasmid lineages are designated as defined by Schnittger et al. [2] by roman numbers. ² C1A proteinase groups are designated according to those identified in the phylogenetic tree of Figure 1. ³ This C1A proteinase has not been included in the phylogenetic tree since it is truncated but could be confirmed by BBH. C1A proteinases framed blue and green represent in- and out-paralogs, respectively. C1A proteinases designated by an underlined accession numbers within a line represent orthologs as identified either by BBH or by tree analysis with respect to C1A proteinases designated with a bold accession number. C1A proteinases in italics represent non-functional proteinase homologs that exhibit incomplete or exchanged amino acids at active sites.

C1A-Cp of Group 7 include families of eight, two, three, and five paralogs in T. equi (Clade IV), T. annulata, T. parva, and T. orientalis (Theileria s.s., Clade V) genomes, respectively, whereas C1A-Cp members of B. bovis, B. ovis, and B. duncani have been lost. Possibly due to multiple events of gene duplication and loss in this sequence group, current evolutionary lineages of some single sequences such as B. bigemina (XP_012766037), T. equi (XP004828646), and C. felis (CF003226) are difficult to interpret based on their tree segregation and low support (Group 7). C1A-Cp within Subgroup 7a and T. orientalis XP_009690114, T. annulata XP_952609, and T. parva XP_764667 within Subgroup 7c represent co-orthologs. Remarkably, after speciation into T. equi multiple duplication events have resulted in an extensive in-paralog group of altogether seven C1A-Cp (Subgroup 7b). This gene amplification seems to have occurred as a single unique event in this piroplasmid species which strongly supports its classification separate from Theileria s.s. Likewise, multiple duplication events in T. orientalis resulted in a group of at least four paralogs (Subgroup 7c). Most likely, T. orientalis proteinases XP_009692826 and the lineage resulting in XP_009690114/XP_009690115 have arisen prior to speciation and resulted therefore in the generation of three out-paralogs in T. orientalis with respect to orthologs XP_952609 of T. annulata, XP_764667 of T. parva, and XP_009690114 of T. orientalis. In contrast, C1A-Cp pairs of T. parva (XP_764667/XP_764668) and of T. orientalis (XP_009690114/XP_009690115) represent in-paralogs that have generated after speciation. In addition, C1A-Cps of Group 7, similar to those of Groups 3 and 8 discussed in the following, are of the cathepsin L-like type.

Group 8 is well supported and consists of three monophyletic C1A-Cp lineages. Contrary to the expected, the well supported Babesia s.s. (Clade VI) sequences (Subgroup 8a), which include ovipain-2 of B. ovis and bovipain-2 of B. bovis, place as a sister with respect to the remaining proteinases of Group 8 (Subgroup 8a). Notably, however, the position of the C1A-Cp of B. duncani as a sister of this grouping is not supported. Three paralogs of C. felis (Subgroup 8b) represent a sister group to T. equi (Clade IV) and Theileria s.s. (Clade V) sequences (Subgroup 8c). Most likely, C1A proteinases of C. felis (Clade IIIb) have expanded to a family of three in-paralogs after the split of this lineage from T. equi (Clade IV) and Theileria s.s. (Clade V). C1A cysteine proteinases of T. equi (Clade IV) but in particular those of Theileria s.s. (Clade V) species T. annulata, T. parva, and T. orientalis have greatly expanded into three, seven, six, and six C1A paralog families, respectively (Subgroup 8c). The C1A proteinase family of T. equi represent in-paralogs that have generated after the split of this species from Theileria s.s. (Subgroup 8c). Based on the observed segregation pattern of T. annulata, T. parva, and T. orientalis C1A-Cp, the underlying gene duplication events most likely happened before speciation in their most recent common ancestor (MRCA). This strongly suggests that the respective C1A-Cp-encoding gene family has been inherited by the descendants of all Theileria s.s. parasites and presents a common feature of this group. Thus, in accordance with genome homology nomenclature, each member of a protein family of a given species (e.g., T. annulata) represents an out-paralog to any of the other protein family members of the remaining two species (e.g., T. parva and T. orientalis). The above interpretation is also supported by synteny studies of the respective T. annulata, T. parva, and T. orientalis genome regions [31,35,37,38]. The unique evolution of the C1A-Cp family of Theileria s.s. seems to be a characteristic hallmark of this parasite genus that might have been crucial for their evolutionary radiation [51]. In summary, independent and characteristic C1A proteinase duplication events distinguish and define the T. equi and the C. felis groups from each other but also from Theileria s.s., supporting their classification into three evolutionary lineages and taxonomic entities. Furthermore, altogether eight subgroups of C1A-Cp proteinase paralogs could be distinguished, of which the five Groups 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8, were highly significantly supported. Group 2 comprises cysteine proteinases of the SERA-like family, whereas Groups 3, 7, and 8 and Group 5 comprise cysteine proteinases of the cathepsin L and cathepsin C-like family, respectively. In addition, Groups 1, 4, and 6 correspond to three C1A-Cp proteinases of B. microti whose assignment to other groups could not be supported reflecting the relatively distant evolutionary relation of B. microti with respect to the other piroplasmid lineages included in the study.

Recently, a molecular phylogenetic analysis using concatenated mitochondrial genes cytb, cox1, and cox3 and the 18S rRNA gene could integrate C. felis with Theileria s.s. into a single monophyletic group. In addition, synteny of mitochondrial genomes of C. felis corresponded with those of Theileria s.s. and Babesia s.s. Furthermore, in the inferred tree, T. equi represents a sister group with respect to a clade comprised of C. felis and Theileria s.s. and a clade of Babesia s.s. [22]. This is in contrast to the present phylogenetic analysis in which C. felis-C1A-Cp segregate commonly with a high bootstrap support as a sister taxon with regard to sequences of T. equi and Theileria s.s. (see Group 2 and Subgroups 3b, 5b, 7b, and 8b), and, whenever other placements are observed, they remain unsupported (Groups 5a). Furthermore, T. equi commonly places as sister with regard to Theileria s.s. (Subgroups 3b, 5a, 5b, 7b/c, and 8c), although this position is only supported in a single case (Subgroup 3b). All in all, our findings strongly support C. felis as a sister group of T. equi and Theileria s.s., rather than T. equi as a sister group of C. felis and Theileria s.s., corresponding with previous studies [2]. This analysis also suggests that cysteine proteinase sequences may aid in the phylogenetic inference particularly of more closely related piroplasmid species and/or groups.

3.3. C1A Cysteine Proteinase Profiles Characterize Piroplasmid Lineages

A synopsis of the allocation of identified C1A cysteine-proteinases to C1A groups and piroplasmids is shown in Table 2. By far, the highest number of C1A-Cp paralogs was found in T. equi (n = 13), T. annulata (n = 13), T. parva (n = 13), and T. orientalis (n = 15), followed by C. felis, which also presents a relatively high number of C1A-Cp paralogs (n = 8). In contrast, the analyzed Babesia parasites account for a lower number of 3–5 paralogs. Characteristic C1A-Cp group profiles allow distinguishing between the different piroplasmid Clades I to VI. In the case of B. microti (Clade I), three of four C1A-Cp are unique and have no orthologs in any other piroplasmid species. B. duncani (Clade II) exhibits only a single C1A-Cp in Groups 3, 5, and 8. C. felis (Clade IIIb) displays, together with T. equi (Clade IV) and Theileria s.s. (Clade V), C1A-Cps in Groups 3, 5, 7, and 8, while a C1A-Cp in Group 2 is exclusively found in C. felis and Theileria s.s. In Group 8 of C. felis (Clade IIIb) and T. equi (Clade IV), a moderate expansion into three paralogs is observed. In addition, T. equi (Clade IV) presents a conspicuously increased number of eight paralogs in Group 7. All studied Theileria s.s exhibit characteristic C1A expansions of 2–5 paralogs in Group 7, and of 6–7 paralogs in Group 8. Finally, exclusively in Babesia s.s. a single C1A-Cp is found in Group 3 and 8, and a C1A paralog pair in Group 5. The observation that similar C1A paralog profiles repeat in T. annulata, T. parva, and T. orientalis of Theileria s.s. (Clade V) and in B. ovis, B. bovis, and B. bigemina of Babesia s.s. (Clade VI) suggests that they constitute suitable taxonomic genome markers for the respective groups.

It is noticeable that C. felis, T. equi, and Theileria s.s., which are all characterized by the possession of a schizont stage, jointly exhibit a moderate (C. felis) to extreme (T. equi and Theileria s.s.) expansion of C1A-Cp paralogs. We cautiously suggest that this might be functionally associated with the evolution of the schizont stage. Alternatively, different tick host specificity and/or mode of transmission might also be associated with the observed C1A-Cp paralog profiles. Future investigations including gene knockout studies might be able to shed light on the hypothesized functional associations.

Author Contributions

Leonhard Schnittger conceived and designed the experiments; Mariano E. Ascencio performed the experiments; Leonhard Schnittger and Mariano E. Ascencio analyzed the data; Choukri B. Mamoun William Weir and Brian Shiels contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools; and Leonhard Schnittger, Mariano E. Ascencio and Monica Florin-Christensen wrote the paper.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.