Journal
JOURNAL OF INVERTEBRATE PATHOLOGY
Volume 104, Issue 3, Pages 172-179Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jip.2010.03.005
Keywords
Alveolata; Apicomplexa; Lecudinidae; Lecudina; Parasite; Phylogeny; Polychaete; Trichotokara nothriae
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Funding
- Tula Foundation (Centre for Microbial Diversity and Evolution)
- National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) [283091-09]
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
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The trophozoites of a novel gregarine apicomplexan, Trichotokara nothriae n. gen. et sp., were isolated and characterized from the intestines of the onuphid tubeworm Nothria conchylega (Polychaeta), collected at 20 m depth from the North-eastern Pacific Coast. The trophozoites were 50-155 mu m long with a mid-cell indentation that formed two prominent bulges (anterior bulge, 14-48 mu m wide; posterior bulge, 15-55 mu m wide). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that approximately 400 densely packed, longitudinal epicytic folds (5 folds/mu m) inscribe the surface of the trophozoites, and a prominently elongated mucron (14-60 mu m long and 6-12 mu m wide) was covered with hair-like projections (mean length, 1.97 mu m; mean width, 0.2 mu m at the base). Although a septum occurred at the junction between the cell proper and the mucron in most trophozoites, light microscopy (LM) demonstrated that the cell proper extended into the core of the mucron as a thin prolongation. A spherical nucleus (8-20 mu m) was situated in the middle of the trophozoites, and gamonts underwent caudal syzygy. The small subunit (SSU) rDNA sequence and molecular phylogenetic position of T. nothriae was also characterized. The sequence from this species was the most divergent of all SSU rDNA sequences currently known from gregarines and formed a weakly supported clade with Lecudina polymorpha, which also possesses densely packed epicyctic folds (3-5 folds/mu m) and a prominently elongated mucron. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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