RESEARCH NOTE Occurrence of Sporozoa-like microorganisms in the digestive gland of various species of Strombidae

The digestive gland of Strombus (Eustrombus) gigas Linnaeus,1758 has been described by Gros, Frenkiel & Aldana Aranda(2009) as an assemblage of tubules and ducts that are con-nected to the stomach. Three cell types occur in the epitheliumof the blind-ending tubules, according to histological andTEM observations: digestive cells, crypt cells and vacuolatedcells. Several examples of parasitic relationships betweenmarine gastropods and apicomplexan parasites have beendescribed (Friedman et al., 1995; Azevedo & Padovan, 2004).Baqueiro Ca´rdenas et al. (2007) reported the presence of intra-cellular microorganisms that they interpreted as belonging tovarious life cycle stages characteristic of Apicomplexa withinsome cells in the digestive gland of S. gigas. Heterospecificinteractions between organisms living inside the cells ofanother one are not easy to characterize. The description ofSporozoa-like microorganisms occurring in the digestive glandof S. gigas raises several questions: How broad is the geographicdistribution of the Sporozoa-like microorganism? Are otherspecies of Strombidae also infected? The present study reportsthe occurrence of Sporozoa-like microorganisms from a struc-tural analysis of the digestive gland of six species belonging tothe family Strombidae found in distant geographic regions.Individuals from four Caribbean species: Strombus (Aliger)costatus Gmelin, 1791 (n ¼ 50); S. (Aliger) gallus Linnaeus, 1758(n ¼ 1); S. (Eustrombus) gigas (n