First American Stand of Paramecium novaurelia and Intra-specific Differentiation of the Species

Abstract

A stand of Paramecium novaurelia was found in Boston Massachusetts, USA, the first on this continent. Molecular studies (RAPD and sequencing of rRNA [ 3'SSUrRNA-ITS1, 5' LSU rRNA] and COI mtDNA fragments) of P. novaurelia strains show intra-specific polymorphism within the species as strain clusters characterized by variable relationships.

Seasonal and spatial variability of species occurrence of the Paramecium aurelia complex in a single natural pond (Protista, Ciliophora)

“…The complex is composed of 15 species (Sonneborn, 1975;Aufderheide et al, 1983) known worldwide but some of which are cosmopolitan such as P. primaurelia, P. biaurelia, P. tetraurelia, and P. sexaurelia (Sonneborn, 1975) while others seem limited to geographic regions or temperature zones (P. octaurelia, P decaurelia, P. undecaurelia, P. tredecaurelia, P. quadecaurelia, and P. sonneborni) (Sonneborn, 1975;Przyboś & Fokin, 2000;Przyboś et al, 2003aPrzyboś et al, , 2005Przyboś et al, , 2007aPrzyboś et al, , b, 2009. A species recognized previously as having a distribution limited to Europe (P. novaurelia) was later found in Asiatic Turkey (Przyboś, 1998) and Boston, USA (Przyboś et al, 2007b). Therefore, sampling from larger areas and different habitats may bring new data concerning the distribution of the P. aurelia species.…”

“…The problem of geographic distribution and temporal occurrence was also studied in the genus Paramecium (e.g., Fokin et al, 1999Fokin et al, , 2004 and widely in the Paramecium aurelia complex (Przyboś & Fokin, 2000;Przyboś et al, 2007bPrzyboś et al, , 2008aand others). The complex is composed of 15 species (Sonneborn, 1975;Aufderheide et al, 1983) known worldwide but some of which are cosmopolitan such as P. primaurelia, P. biaurelia, P. tetraurelia, and P. sexaurelia (Sonneborn, 1975) while others seem limited to geographic regions or temperature zones (P. octaurelia, P decaurelia, P. undecaurelia, P. tredecaurelia, P. quadecaurelia, and P. sonneborni) (Sonneborn, 1975;Przyboś & Fokin, 2000;Przyboś et al, 2003aPrzyboś et al, , 2005Przyboś et al, , 2007aPrzyboś et al, , b, 2009.…”