Morphology and molecular phylogeny of a Chinese population of Rubrioxytricha guamensis Kumar et al., 2018 (Ciliophora: Hypotrichia)

ABSTRACT

So far, Rubrioxytricha guamensis Kumar et al. 2018 is known only from the type locality, namely Guam, USA. Recently, another isolate was recorded from a freshwater habitat in China that is 3500 km from the type locality. Its morphology and molecular phylogeny were investigated using live observation, protargol staining and ribosomal gene sequencing methods. The morphology of the present isolate of R. guamensis corresponds well with that of the type population despite a broad range of morphometric data in the Chinese population. Conspecificity of the two populations is supported by 99.9% 18S rRNA gene sequence similarity. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that these two populations of R. guamensis group together and cluster within the genus. The present study contributes to understanding the wide distribution of the species and helps to circumscribe the species.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8D742552-78DA-4698-A316-BDAE0D887E92

KEYWORDS:

• New record
• oxytrichids
• 18S rRNA
• phylogenetic analysis

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Weibo Song, Ocean University of China, for institutional support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Sequence data are available in GenBank (Accession numbers: PP893155). Eighteen voucher slides with protargol-stained specimens have been deposited in the Laboratory of Systematic Taxonomy, Ocean University of China, China. The registration numbers are as follows: fa2023030301/1–18. Another protargol slide (registration number fa2023030301/19) has been deposited in the Marine Biological Museum, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [project numbers: 42276094, 41976086].