Revisão sistemática e ocorrência de Trypanosoma sp. em répteis: primeiro registro em Pseudoboa nigra no Parque Nacional Da Serra Da Canastra (Minas Gerais, Brasil)

Abstract

Brazil holds around 856 described reptile species, but Trypanosoma spp. parasitism and its actual diversity in Minas Gerais remain rare and poorly understood, in addition to exhibiting pronounced morphological polymorphism. The present study aimed to outline the global overview of Trypanosoma sp. in reptiles and to investigate the occurrence and morphological characterization of these parasites in the herpetofauna of the Serra da Canastra National Park (PNSC), Minas Gerais, Brazil. To achieve this, a systematic literature review was conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, along with active searching and blood sampling of six reptile species in the PNSC. Blood smears were fixed with methanol, stained with Giemsa, and analyzed under optical microscopy for morphometric assessments and statistical analyses (ANOVA, PCA, and Cluster/Dendrogram) in RStudio. The literature review retrieved 29 valid articles published over a 62-year period, highlighting a historical scarcity of publications until the 2000s, a predominance of infections in the order Squamata, and Brazil's leadership in the volume of geographical publications. In the field data, the presence of Trypanosoma sp. was identified in an individual of Pseudoboa nigra, presenting a parasitemia considered low and a high polymorphism. The ANOVA test indicated that most of the linear characters evaluated did not vary significantly to determine distinct morphotypes, whereas the PCA and dendrogram discriminated four morphometric sorting clusters, mathematically proving the coexistence of different morphotypes in a single host individual and the pronounced intraspecific polymorphism throughout its life cycle. This work generated new data and fundamental contributions to the academic community, highlighting the methodological transition toward integrative taxonomy, and emphasizing the need for future studies to adopt advanced molecular biology tools to determine the evolutionary and taxonomic position of the genus Trypanosoma in reptiles.