Description of Basilaphelenchus brevicaudatus n. sp. (Aphelenchoidea: Tylaphelenchinae) from a dead forest tree in northern Iran

Abstract

SummaryBasilaphelenchus brevicaudatusn. sp., the third species of this apparently rare genus, is described and illustrated. It was recovered from wood and bark samples from a dead forest tree in the Golestan province of northern Iran. It is typologically characterised by female body length (448 (365-492) μm), three lines in the lateral fields, raised cephalic region having a sclerotised vestibule and cephalic framework, stylet thin with delicate conus and thicker shaft, both parts lacking a visible lumen, and with three elongate, backwardly directed knobs, small, spherical to spade-shaped metacorpus with small, posteriorly located valve (at 72 (58-74)% of metacorpus length), simple vulva without flap at 72.5 (69-78)% of body length, post-vulval uterine sac 32.4 (29.0-37.0) μm long, functional rectum and anus, female tail conical, short (c′ = 2.6 (1.9-3.3) in female, and 2.5 (2.3-2.8) in male), dorsally convex and ventrally concave with blunt end or having a small mucron, both forms with a hyaline-like tip. Males common, with well-curved 9.2 (9.0-10.5) μm long spicules measured along the mid-line, three pairs of small caudal papillae (lacking the single P1 ventral papilla) and no bursa at tail tip, but with hyaline region, similar to females.Basilaphelenchus brevicaudatusn. sp. is compared with the two currently known species of the genus, the type species,B. persicus, andB. grosmannae. Molecular phylogenetic inferences using partial sequences of small and large subunit ribosomal RNA genes (SSU and LSU) from different isolates of the new species revealed that it belongs to the Tylaphelenchinae clade.

Basilaphelenchus gorganensis n. sp. (Aphelenchoidea, Tylaphelenchinae) from wood from northern Iran

“…The general topologies of the inferred phylogenies in this study are similar to phylogenies in two previous studies by Pedram et al () and Mirzaie Fouladvand et al ().…”

“…Sequences were compared with those of other aphelenchoidid species available in GenBank using the BLAST homology search program. For reconstruction of both SSU and LSU rDNA phylogenies, the SSU and LSU datasets used in phylogenetic study of B. persicus (Pedram et al, ) and B. brevicaudatus (Mirzaei Fouladvand et al, ) were used. The sequences were aligned using the Q‐INS‐i algorithm of online version of MAFFT version 7 (http://mafft.cbrc.jp/alignment/server/) (Katoh & Standley, ).…”

“…It currently includes three nominal species, viz . Basilaphelenchus persicus Pedram et al, (the type species); B. grosmannae (Rühm, ) Pedram et al, and B. brevicaudatus Mirzaei Fouladvand, Pourjam, Kanzaki, Giblin‐Davis, & Pedram, . The genus is mainly characterized by having the apomorphic trait of a well posteriorly located metacorpal valve (at >69% of the metacorpus length from its anterior end).…”

“…They all possess at least one tylenchid‐like trait (i.e., three elongate posteriorly directed stylet knobs, small spherical metacorpus, isthmus and/or tylenchid‐type bursa; Pedram et al, ). Molecular data are currently available for only two genera, Basilaphelenchus and Pseudaphelenchus , both of which share the same clade in both SSU and LSU phylogenies (Mirzaie Fouladvand et al, ; Pedram et al, ).…”

First molecular characterization of an Iranian population of Schistonchus caprifici (Gasparrini, 1864) Cobb, 1927 (Rhabditida; Aphelenchoidea)

“…Several representatives of Aphelenchoidea (Fuchs, 1937) have been reported from Iran, and currently the genera Aphelenchoides (Fischer, 1894), Aprutides (Scognamiglio et al, 1970), Basilaphelenchus (Pedram et al, 2018), Cryptaphelenchus (Fuchs, 1937), Devibursaphelenchus (Kakulia, 1967), Ektaphelenchus (Fuchs, 1937), Ektaphelenchoides (Baujard, 1984), Laimaphelenchus (Fuchs, 1937), Robustodorus (Andrássy, 2007), Seinura (Fuchs, 1931), and Sheraphelenchus (Nickle, 1970) are known that occur in the country (e.g. Pourjam and Bert, 2006 ; Pedram et al, 2011, 2012, 2018a, b ; Atighi et al., 2012a, b ; Moosavi et al, 2014 ; Miraeiz et al, 2015 ; Adeldoost et al, 2016 ; Pedram, 2017, 2019 ; Aliramaji et al., 2018, 2019, 2020 ; Mobasseri et al, 2018 ; Mirzaie Fouladvand et al, 2019a, b ). Schistonchus Cobb, 1927 occurs in the country with only one representative, the type species, Schistonchus caprifici (Gasparrini, 1864) Cobb, 1927, being reported in three conference abstracts ( Kheiri and Goldansaz, 1998 ; Pakniyat and Taghizadeh, 2000 ; Namjoo et al., 2019 ) with no morphological and morphometric data.…”