Morphological and molecular characterisation of Aphelenchoides primadentus n. sp. (Nematoda: Aphelenchoididae) from northern Iran

Abstract

Aphelenchoides primadentusn. sp. is described and illustrated based on its morphological, morphometric and molecular characters. It was recovered from natural forests of northern Iran in association with mosses. The new species is characterised by its body length of 502-613μm in females and 461-564μm in males, presence of three lines in the lateral fields, a low lip region slightly offset by a shallow depression, 11.1-13.8μm long stylet in females, its conus being longer than the shaft (m = 53.0-68.5) and bearing well-developed, rounded basal knobs, the excretory pore located atcaone body diam. posterior to the metacorpus, a conical tail with a multipapillate terminus or with a single, warty, wide mucron-like structure at the tip, and males with 19-22μm long arcuate spicules that lack a well-developed condylus and rostrum. The new species was morphologically compared with species of the genus having three lines in the lateral field and a multipapillate tail tip or tail with warty mucron, namelyA. iranicusandA. heidelbergi. Compared toA. ensete,A. huntensisandA. gorganensis, three species with a multipapillate tail tip or warty mucron at the tail tip, the new species has a basic difference in the number of lines in the lateral field and, compared to two species,A. composticolaandA. petersi, which have three lines in the lateral field and a similar overall morphology, the new species has basic differences in tail tip morphology. The results of phylogenetic analyses using partial sequences of ribosomal small subunit RNA (SSU) and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (COImtDNA) genes revealed there is currently no sequenced species of the genus phylogenetically close to the new species being sequenced for these two genomic and non-genomic regions. The new species forms a clade withA. ritzemabosiin SSU, and three other species,A. besseyi,A. ritzemabosiandA. fujianensis, in theCOItree.

Description of Aphelenchoides giblindavisi n. sp. (Nematoda: Aphelenchoididae), and Proposal for a New Combination

“…The new species was provisionally assigned to the group 2 of intraspecies grouping of Aphelenchoides. However, this is an artificial framework (Mobasseri et al, 2018), and in some cases, the species could not easily assigned to either of those groups. In their extensive study, van Megen et al (2009) investigating a broad range of taxa using SSU rDNA sequences, concluded that the tail tip characters could support some cladogenesis events, and also correlated the tail tip characters with the resolved relations between two genera, Laimaphelenchus Fuchs, 1937 and Aphelenchoides.…”

“…The genus Aphelenchoides Fischer, 1894 (family Aphelenchoididae Skarbilovich, 1947), has around 175 nominal species (Mobasseri et al, 2018). This could also be an underestimate, and several sequences deposited at the GenBank database for example, are identified only at the genus level.…”

“…The history of the reported or described species of Aphelenchoides from Iran was given by Mobasseri et al (2018). During our nematological surveys conducted in northern provinces of the country, two populations of the genus were recovered from Asalem forests in Gilan province, and a forest in Semnan province in north of Iran.…”

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

“…The taxonomy of aphelenchs in Iran has been recently reviewed by Mobasseri, Pourjam, and Pedram () and Aliramaji, Pourjam, Jahanshahi Afshar, Álvares‐Ortega, and Pedram (). The present study is part of a continuing survey of aphelenchs from Iran with the discovery of another new species of Basilaphelenchus from a dead tree.…”

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.…”