Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PROTISTOLOGY
Volume 49, Issue 2, Pages 312-323Publisher
ELSEVIER GMBH
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejop.2012.06.003
Keywords
Frontonia; Morphology; New species; Phylogeny; Small-subunit rRNA
Categories
Funding
- National Nature Science Foundation of China [31071893]
- research fund for the doctoral program of higher education [20104407120006]
- King Saud University Deanship of Scientific Research, Saudi Arabia [RGP-VPP-083]
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Members of the ciliate genus Frontonia are common colonizers of periphytic communities in aquatic biotopes. Recent studies indicate that their species diversity is higher than previously supposed. In this study the morphology and infraciliature of three new species, Frontonia sinica spec. nov., E pusilla spec. nov., and E elegans spec. nov., isolated from coastal waters of China, were investigated using live observation and silver impregnation methods. Frontonia sinica differs from its congeners by the following combination of characters: ellipsoidal body, about 116 somatic and five or six vestibular kineties, peniculi 1 and 2 four-rowed, peniculus 3 two-rowed, and a single contractile vacuole. Frontonia pusilla has about 72 somatic kineties, four-rowed peniculi 1 and 2, a two-rowed peniculus 3, and two contractile vacuoles. Frontonia elegans has 73 somatic kineties, four-rowed peniculi 1 and 2, a three-rowed peniculus 3, and two contractile vacuoles. In the present work, six new small-subunit rRNA gene sequences of six Frontonia species are used to construct the phylogenetic trees. Our phylogenetic analysis supports that the genus Frontonia may be paraphyletic. Meanwhile, no pattern of correlation could be found between the structures of peniculi and the phylogenetic relationships of Frontonia species in the present study. (C) 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
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