Morphological and molecular characterization of Parafurgasonia zhangi spec. nov. and Chilodonella acuta Kahl, 1931 (Protozoa, Ciliophora), from a soil habitat of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Morphological and molecular characterization of Parafurgasonia zhangi spec. nov. and Chilodonella acuta Kahl, 1931 (Protozoa, Ciliophora), from a soil habitat of Saudi Arabia The morphology and infraciliature of two soil ciliates, Parafurgasonia zhangi spec. nov. and Chilodonella acuta Kahl, 1931, collected from Saudi Arabia, were investigated by observations of both living cells and specimens after standard staining methods. P. zhangi differs from its congeners by the combination of the following features: excretory pore quite near posterior end of paroral membrane, 16 or 17 somatic kineties with about 11 kinetids in each one on dorsal side, paroral membrane gently curved and composed of about 15 dikinetids, and hypostomial organelle composed of four or five files of kinetids with four monokinetids each. The diagnosis of Chilodonella acuta was renewed to include characteristics revealed by the silver impregnation method: cells in vivo measuring 33-45¾18-26 mm, dorsal hump and tail-like podite present, two contractile vacuoles, seven left and five right kineties, 9-11 nematodesmal rods, and dorsal brush containing about 11 basal bodies. Phylogenetic analyses based on small-subunit rRNA gene sequences showed that P. zhangi was closer to species of the Colpodidiidae rather than the Furgasoniidae represented by Furgasonia blochmanni, and Chilodonella acuta clustered with its congener Chilodonella uncinata but was a well-outlined species of the genus. INTRODUCTIONSoil ciliates, with the total number of known species approaching 1000, are distributed worldwide. They play an important role in nutrient cycling of terrestrial food webs (Acosta-Mercado & Lynn, 2004;Chao et al., 2006). With the ability to form resistant resting cysts, soil ciliates are adapted well to various soil habitats even including desert sand dunes (Foissner et al., 2002(Foissner et al., , 2008Verni & Rosati, 2011). Compared with the large number of investigations on marine ciliate fauna of the Saudi Arabian coasts (AlRasheid, 1996(AlRasheid, , 1997(AlRasheid, , 1999(AlRasheid, , 2001Al-Farraj, 2008;Chen et al., 2013), ciliates from soil habitats of Saudi Arabia remain poorly known. However, some recent reports have shown that a quite wide diversity of ciliates might exist in dry habitats (Al-Farraj, 2011;Berger et al., 2006;Fan et al., 2014a;Foissner et al., 2008).In the present paper, the morphological description of two ciliates, isolated from a dry soil of Saudi Arabia, was documented based on observations of specimens in vivo and after various staining methods. Molecular characterization was also applied to contribute to species circumscription and to further our understanding of the phylogeny of the Nassophorea and Phyllopharyngea. METHODSSample collection, observation and identification. The sampling location is within an area of farmland (26u 229 010 N 44u 469 030 E) that is situated about 12 km from Zulfi city, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The farmland was natural and not subjected to fertilizer. Some vegetation was observed around the samplin...

Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of Three Cyrtophorid Ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from China, Including Two New Species, Chilodonella parauncinata sp. n. and Chlamydonella irregularis sp. n.

“…Our results support the monophyly of the Subclass Cyrtophorida and are generally consistent with the topologies proposed by previous researchers (Fan et al. ; Gao et al. ; Pan et al.…”

“…G, H) has seven left and five right kineties, which resembles our isolate, but it can be clearly distinguished from the later by a tail‐like spine at posterior end (vs. absent; Fan et al. ; Kahl ).…”

A massive Chilodonella hexasticha infestation associated with yellowtail tetra Astyanax lacustris mortality in aquaculture: Identification and pathology

“…Photomicrographs of the stained parasites (1000x) were taken using an optical microscope equipped with a Nikon E200 camera, and were used for measurements with Image ProPlus® software. Character parameters were measured and the parasite was identified according to Fan, Ma, Al‐Farraj, and Gu (). For endoparasite research, the stomach and intestine of the fish were collected.…”

Current status of parasitic ciliates Chilodonella spp. (Phyllopharyngea: Chilodonellidae) in freshwater fish aquaculture

“…Generally, species are identified using measurements of the macronucleus (MAC) and MIC (Fan et al . ; Qu et al . ).…”

“…Understanding the asexual division and sexual cycle of Chilodonella is important for morphological characterization of species. Generally, species are identified using measurements of the macronucleus (MAC) and MIC (Fan et al 2014;Qu et al 2014). However, considering Chilodonella cells undergo complex processes in their different life cycle stages, mischaracterization of species could occur using MAC and MIC measurements.…”