Morphology and description of infraciliary bands pattern in four Metadinium Awerinzew & Mutafowa, 1914 species (Ciliophora, Entodiniomorphida, Ophryoscolecidae) with taxonomic notes on the genus

Abstract

The genus Metadinium includes ophryoscolecid ciliates, with two retractile ciliary zones in the anterior body portion, two broad skeletal plates, a lobed macronucleus and two contractile vacuoles. Species belonging to this genus were recorded in several geographical locations and in different host species. However, they were mostly described based on a single ciliatological technique, and until now, there is only one description of the infraciliary pattern in Metadinium ciliates (Metadinium medium). The present study performs the morphological and infraciliature characterization of four species belonging to Metadinium: M. esalqum, M. minorum, M. rotundatum and M. ypsilon; and presents taxonomic notes on the genus. The oral infraciliature in these four Metadinium species corresponds to the Diplodinium-type, pattern shared with genera Diplodinium, Diploplastron, Eudiplodinium, Eremoplastron and Polyplastron. A brief review conducted highlights the difficulty of delimiting Metadinium species due to the morphological similarity among them.

Ruminal ciliate diversity of domestic cattle in Antalya, Turkey, with special emphasis on morphology of Entodinium rostratum (Entodiniomorphida, Ophryoscolecidae)

“…Scale bars: 10 µm. were not observed in other Entodinium species as well as in other ophryoscolecid ciliates (Noirot-Timothée, 1960;Ito et al, 1997Ito et al, , 2001Ito and Imai, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2006Mishima et al, 2009;Gürelli and Akman, 2017;Gürelli, 2018;Ito and Tokiwa, 2018;Cedrola et al, 2018). Transverse, short, and parallel dorsal vestibular fibrils were detected in the hindgut ciliate species Charonina elephanti, which was classified in the family Blepharocorythidae, suborder Blepharocorythina (Gürelli, 2019).…”

Insights into the systematics of the family Ophryoscolecidae (Ciliophora, Entodiniomorphida)

“…According to her, the infraciliary band morphology of the genus Diplodinium sensu Dogiel corroborates Dogiel's systematics (Dogiel, 1927), since all Diplodinium sensu Dogiel species share the same pattern of infraciliary bands. However, it has been demonstrated, recently, that some ophryoscolecids, such as Metadinium , Ostracodinium , and Eodinium representatives have distinct infraciliary band morphologies (Cedrola et al, 2018, 2021; Gürelli & Akman, 2017; Ito & Imai, 1998, 2003; Ito et al, 2001), contradicting Dogiel (1927) and Noirot‐Timothée (1960) hypotheses.…”

“…Recently, some studies revised the systematics of some Ophryoscolecidae genera [ Diplodinium , Diploplastron , Ostracodinium , and Metadinium Cedrola et al, 2017a, b, 2018, 2021] and according to molecular phylogenetic reconstructions (Cedrola, Senra, et al, 2017; Cedrola et al, 2020; Rossi et al, 2015), the systematics of the family needs reconsideration, as many of the classification available do not reflect evolutionary divergences.…”

“…The most recent systematic review of the family was performed 55 years ago (Latteur, 1966) and only recently, some studies revised the systematics of part of its genera, such as Diplodinium Schuberg, 1888, Diploplastron Kofoid & MacLennan, 1932, Metadinium Awerinzew & Mutafowa, 1914, and Ostracodinium Dogiel, 1927 (Cedrola et al, 2017a, b, 2018, 2021) and discussed systematic incongruences based on molecular analyses (Cedrola, Senra, et al, 2017; Cedrola et al, 2020; Rossi et al, 2015). These papers stress that a far‐reaching revision of the systematics of this family is required, indicating that the current taxonomy does not reflect evolutionary relationships and is insufficient to organize the diversity of the group (Dogiel, 1927; Kofoid & MacLennan, 1930, 1932, 1933).…”

Rumen Ciliated Protozoa of the Free-Living European Bison (Bison bonasus, Linnaeus)

“…At least four replicates were counted per sample and per ciliate species. The protozoan genera and species were identified according to the size and the shape of cells, skeletal plates (if present), macronucleus, and ciliature arrangement (Dogiel, 1927 ; Ogimoto and Imai, 1981 ; Williams and Coleman, 1992 ; Ito and Imai, 1998 ; Ito et al, 2001 ; Cedrola et al, 2017a , b , 2018 ). Different staining procedures were used to stain skeletal plates (iodine solution), nuclei (methyl green-formalin-saline and chrome-alum-carmine), and infraciliature (pyridinated silver carbonate method) (Ogimoto and Imai, 1981 ).…”