Ectopic kinetoplast in trypanosomes of wild clarias gariepinus from sokoto and zamfara states, nigeria

Author: 
Muhammad, S., Chafe, U.M., Daneji, A.I., Adamu, Y.A., Mohammed, A.A. and Bello, M.R.

Members of the Trypanosomatidae family responsible for sleeping sickness in man and debilitating disease in animals share common feature of structural organelle arrangement with other eukaryotes. While screening blood of four species of wild fish of Northern Nigeria (Clarias gariepinus, Mormyrus rume, Bagras bayad, and Tilapia zilli) from 2 locations in Sokoto and Zamfara States for trypanosomes, two unfamiliar morphotypes of bloodstream trypamastigotes were incidentally observed in two Clarias gariepinus from Rabah and Nato dams respectively. Recommended parasitological techniques with Giemsa stain and light microscopy were adopted for processing. The prominent unusual features were: protruded kinetoplasts at the posterior border, barely discernible undulating membranes and apparently posterior inclined nucleus. The abnormal herniation of kinetoplast into a sac- like compartment posteriorly, was described as ‘Ectopic’. These unusual and aberrant external appendages were suspended to the rest of the body by a strip of hollow tissues (2.2 – 2.9 µm). The cytoskeleton configuration confer abnormal status, as the cells were morphologically unique and distinct from Trypanoplasma, Leishmania or Crithridia that share phylogenic origin within the Trypanosoma genus. There is dearth of information on gross mal positioning of kinetoplast to exterior compartment. The extreme low occurrence of these cells (2/2500) could not confer the status of new membership within the genus, rather the authors are poised to proffer probable pathogenesis of malformation to several factors as mechanical injury, or reproductive defects in cytogenesis and cytokinesis.

Paper No: 
1614