Phylogenetic position of Octosporea muscaedomesticae (Microsporidia) and its relationship to Octosporea bayeri based on small subunit rDNA analysis.

Comparative phylogenetic analysis of the small subunit rDNA sequence of Octosporea muscaedomesticae (Flu, 1911) (type species) (Microsporidia) isolated from the blowfly Phormia regina (Diptera:Calliphoridae) is presented. Neighbor Joining bootstrap, Maximum Parsimony and Maximum Likelihood analyses with 38 microsporidian taxa representing five major clades of Microsporidia placed O. muscaedomesticae on a separate branch within a clade containing parasites of freshwater hosts. O. muscaedomesticae differed from Octosporea bayeri, a parasite of the microcrustacean, Daphnia magna (Cladocera:Daphniidae) by 29% demonstrating that the latter microsporidium is not closely related to the type species at the generic level, and should not be placed within the genus Octosporea, a conclusion that is further supported by morphological and developmental differences. Considering the number of disparately related hosts from which Octosporea species have been previously described based mostly on developmental and morphological characters it is likely that many will not fit the current definition of the genus, and it is possible that molecular analysis of these species will show that this genus as defined represents a polyphyletic grouping of unrelated taxa.