Morphological and molecular descriptions of Sphaeromyxa sevastopoli (Cnidaria) from host fishes from Sinop on the Black Sea coast

New molecular evidence on the members of the genus Ortholinea (Cnidaria, Myxozoa) and the description of Ortholinea hamsiensis n. sp. infecting the urinary bladder of European anchovy Engraulis engrasicolus in the Black Sea

“…In the previous study by Okkay and Özer ( 2020 ), an Ortholinea species was found in the urinary bladder of E. encrasicolus, and based on the comparisons of myxospore morphology and morphometry with the previous wide range of host and geographical locality reports in the literature, they identified it as O. orientalis . However, a more detailed examination of these previously alcohol-preserved infected tissue myxospores of Ortholinea species, namely O. hamsiensis n. sp.…”

“…Myxospore morphology and morphometry of the examined parasites corresponded well with O. gobiusi that was presented in its previous reports from the same fish host. On the other hand, the infected tissue samples previously used by Okkay and Özer ( 2020 ) were revisited for the Ortholinea species reported from E. engrasicolus, and a more detailed investigation of 20 previously alcohol-preserved myxospores from infected urinary bladder together with molecular evaluation revealed a new Ortholinea species namely O. hamsiensis n. sp. The details of taxonomic summary, morphology and infection indices of both species are provided below;…”

“…Gills, fins, skin, urinary bladder, kidney, gall bladder, liver, intestine, smooth muscles and gonads of each fish species were investigated for the presence of Ortholinea parasites. Moreover, previously alcohol-preserved urinary bladder and kidney tissues of Gobius niger , Symphodus cinereus and Engraulis encrasicolus were re-investigated for Ortholinea myxospores by Okkay and Özer ( 2020 ). Myxospores of Ortholinea were examined and photographed with an Olympus microscope (BX53) equipped with a digital camera (DP50), at 400 × and 1000 × magnifications and Nikon (H550S) with DIC attachment at the Faculty of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences in Sinop, Türkiye.…”

“…To extract total genomic DNA from Ortholinea -infected host tissues of Gobius niger , Symphodus cinereus and E. engrasicolus of Okkay and Özer ( 2020 ) and Neogobius melanostomus of the present study, an Invitrogen PureLink ® Genomic DNA Mini Kit (USA) was employed. Extractions were performed according to the manufacturer's instructions and the DNA was hidden at −20 °C before use.…”

“…Myxozoans are the cnidarian parasites that have been reported from fish inhabiting freshwater, brackish water and marine environments (Lom and Dyková, 2006 ; Gürkanlı et al ., 2018 ; Okkay and Özer, 2020 ). Description of myxozoan parasites is mainly based on myxospore morphology and according to this traditional criteria, species of the genus Ortholinea Shulman, 1962 have spherical or subspherical myxospores that are lightly flattened or tapered posterior parallel to the sutural plane, containing 2 polar capsules, subspherical or pyriform, and some species have surface stripes (Lom and Dyková, 2006 ).…”