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Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, VOLUME 121 | 2026

Research Articles

Blechomonas campbelli from Ctenocephalides felis: in vitro development, thermotolerance, and phylogenetic insights

Letícia Gracielle Tôrres de Miranda Estevam¹, Alexei Yu Kostygov^2,3,+, Felipe Dutra-Rêgo^1,+, Anna Luiza Moreira Martins¹, Marina Andrade Freire¹, Ana Cristina Vianna Mariano da Rocha Lima¹, Daniel Moreira de Avelar¹, Gregório Guilherme Almeida⁴, José Dilermando Andrade Filho¹, Vyacheslav Yurchenko², Gustavo Fontes Paz¹

¹Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Instituto René Rachou, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil1Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Instituto René Rachou, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil
²University of Ostrava, Faculty of Science, Life Science Research Centre, Ostrava, Czechia
³Russian Academy of Sciences, Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia
⁴Centro de Tecnologia de Vacinas, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil

DOI: 10.1590/0074-02760250286

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ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND Blechomonas spp. are flea-specific monoxenous trypanosomatids, whose biology, host range, and geographic distribution remain poorly understood, even for species inhabiting ubiquitous cat and dog fleas.
OBJECTIVES To isolate and characterise blechomonads from fleas of domestic dogs in Brazil, focusing on culture growth, morphology, and phylogenetic relationships.
METHODS Fleas collected from dogs in Sabará, Brazil, were morphologically identified and screened by cultivation. The isolate FL-1 was analysed for temperature-dependent growth, morphology, and phylogeny using 18S rRNA and gGAPDH sequences, including those mined from public metagenomic datasets.
FINDINGS Of 340 fleas (four per pool), only one culture tested positive. Growth was optimal at 25ºC, reduced at 30ºC, and absent at 35ºC. Four cell types were revealed, including a predominant “uromonad” stage specialised for attachment and aggregation. Phylogenetic analyses placed the isolate within Blechomonas campbelli and indicated that this species and Blechomonas lauriereadi occur in Ctenocephalides spp. from multiple continents.
MAIN CONCLUSIONS Blechomonas campbelli exhibits developmental adaptations to the flea gut and limited tolerance to elevated temperatures, constraining its potential to persist in warm-blooded hosts. These findings highlight the value of combining culture-based and in silico approaches to investigate flea-associated trypanosomatids.

key words: trypanosomatids fleas thermotolerance morphology phylogeny host range

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