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– The principal mission of ECIPs Cestoda team is to construct an advanced taxonomic and phylogenetic framework that will serve as a baseline for future studies of selected helminth parasites of freshwater and marine fishes and other invertebrate and vertebrate hosts. Recently, the group’s research aims have been widened to include emerging fish-borne parasitic diseases, especially those connected with broad fish tapeworms /Diphyllobothrium/ and the causative agents of human sparganosis. A wide range of aquatic cestodes are studied using morphological, ultrastructural and phylogenetic methods. Two main research lines are followed:
(1) Global cestode diversity. The team undertakes biodiversity studies on freshwater and marine fish cestodes, focusing on hot-spots of teleost diversity and ecosystems under high anthropogenic pressure, including Africa, Amazonia, North America and East Asia. Team members are participating in establishing the Global Cestode Database and in mapping global tapeworm diversity /National Science Foundation – Planetary Biodiversity Inventory project/.
(2) Evolution of basal tapeworms /Cestoda/. We are studying the evolutionary history of what is believed to be the basal group of tapeworms /Cestoda/ uses a combination of morphological, electron microscopy and molecular methods, and undertaking taxonomic revisions as needed. Since the preliminary results of phylogenetic analysis indicate incongruence between current classifications /inferred largely from morphological characteristics/ and natural groupings revealed by molecular data, we are preparing a new classification of the basal cestode groups.
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