New contributions to two ciliate genera (Ciliophora, Heterotrichea) based on morphological and molecular analyses, with
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
New contributions to two ciliate genera (Ciliophora, Heterotrichea) based on morphological and molecular analyses, with description of a new Gruberia species Yong Chi1†, Yuqing Li1†, Qianqian Zhang2,3†, Mingzhen Ma1, Alan Warren4, Xiangrui Chen5*
and Weibo Song1*
Abstract Background: Heterotrichous ciliates are common members of microeukaryote communities which play important roles in both the transfer of material and the flow of energy in aquatic food webs. This group has been known for over two centuries due to their large body size and cosmopolitan distribution. Nevertheless, species identification and phylogenetic relationships of heterotrichs remain challenging due to the lack of accurate morphological information and insufficient molecular data. Results: The morphology and phylogeny of two heterotrichous ciliates, namely Gruberia foissneri spec. nov. and Linostomella vorticella (Ehrenberg, 1833) Aescht in Foissner et al., 1999, were studied using rigorous methods (living morphology, stained preparations, and small subunit rDNA sequence data). Gruberia foissneri spec. nov. is morphologically very similar to G. uninucleata Kahl, 1932, however, it can be distinguished from the latter by having more ciliary rows (about 32 vs. about 20) and macronuclear shape (sausage-shaped vs. ellipsoid). Based on a combination of previous and present studies, an improved diagnosis of L. vorticella is supplied and several taxonomic anomalies are clarified. In addition, phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rDNA sequence data support the generic assignment of these two species. Conclusions: Modern ciliate taxonomy should be performed by means of detailed living observation, stained preparations and molecular information. For those species that have been reported in previous studies, it is necessary to provide as much useful information as possible using state-of-the-art methods in order to resolve taxonomic anomalies. Keywords: Heterotrichs, Morphology, Phylogeny, SSU rDNA
* Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] † Yong Chi, Yuqing Li and Qianqian Zhang contributed equally to this work. 5 School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China 1 Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, and College of Fisheries, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use i
