Fig. 3

Maximum likelihood phylogeny of representative Babesia spp. genotypes obtained from complete and partial sequences of the 18S rRNA gene. We inferred the evolutionary history of the piroplasmid clade from 42 sequences of the 18S rRNA gene using inference based on a Maximum Likelihood approach and a Tamura 3-parameter model [33] with Gamma distribution and invariant rates (TN92+G+I). The base 27 piroplasmid sequences and the outgroup (Plasmodium falciparum) were full-length sequences, while the Madagascar Pteropus rufus sequences (9 total: those derived from Moramanga site shown in blue and Makira site in red) and closely-associated sequences from lemur (KT22781.2), South African cat (KC790444.1), and captive baboon (G]Q225744.1), as well as those from B. vesperuginis (MG011460.1 and AJ871610.1), were partial. The tree with the highest log-likelihood (-1610.95) is shown, with subclade names indicated to the right of the phylogeny. The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of nucleotide substitutions per site; all positions containing gaps and missing data were eliminated. There were a total of 572 positions in the initial alignment and 380 positions in the final dataset