Morphological and molecular characterization of the name-bearing type species Rimaleptus binucleatus (Kahl, 1931), with a phylogenetic re-analysis of dileptid evolutionary history (Ciliophora: Litostomatea: Rhynchostomatia)

Constraints on Phylogenetic Interrelationships among Four Free-living Litostomatean Lineages Inferred from 18S rRNA gene-ITS Region sequences and Secondary Structure of the ITS2 molecule

“…Within the Rhynchostomatia, the orders Tracheliida and Dileptida were uncovered with full or high statistical support only in 18S rRNA gene and concatenated 18S-ITS region trees. The branching pattern within the order Dileptida was congruent with results of our previous phylogenetic studies (Vďačný et al 2011bJang et al 2014;. The family Dileptidae was, however, revealed to be monophyletic with high statistical support only in Bayesian trees inferred from the concatenated datasets, while the family Dimacrocaryonidae was depicted monophyletic with full or high support in all 18S rRNA gene and 18S-ITS region trees.…”

“…The ITS2 region has a comparatively similar length in all free-living litostomatean taxa, ranging from 100 to 112 nucleotides (Ponce-Gordo et al 2011;Jang et al 2014;present study). Interestingly, this is the shortest ITS2 region among all already investigated ciliates from the subphylum Intramacronucleata.…”

“…The majority of recent phylogenetic studies focused mainly on the internal evolutionary relationships within the subclass Rhynchostomatia (Vďačný et al 2011bJang et al 2014;, the order Pleurostomatida (Lin et al 2007Gao et al 2008;Pan et al 2010Pan et al , 2013Wu et al 2015Wu et al , 2016, and the orders Spathidiida and Haptorida (Vďačný et al 2011aVďačný and Foissner 2013;Jang et al 2015Jang et al , 2017Rajter and Vďačný 2016). In spite of the great effort and considerable increase in taxon sampling during the last decade, phylogenetic relationships among these main monophyletic groups have been left almost unresolved.…”

Reconciling morphological and molecular classification of predatory ciliates: Evolutionary taxonomy of dileptids (Ciliophora, Litostomatea, Rhynchostomatia)

“…Specifically, the most important morphological synapomorphies of dileptids include (i) a hybrid structure of the circumoral kinety which is thus composed of oral dikinetids in the proboscis and of oral monokinetids surrounding the cytostome and (ii) a staggered pattern of the dorsal brush whose rows are thus gradually shortened anteriorly from left to right (Vd'ačný et al, 2011a). Monophyly of dileptids was also corroborated by the 18S rRNA gene and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region sequences (Jang et al, 2014;Vd'ačný et al, 2011aVd'ačný et al, ,b, 2012. Although interrelationships among dileptids were statistically weakly supported, two main lineages were recognized: the family Dimacrocaryonidae Vd'ačný et al, 2011 and the family Dileptidae Jankowski, 1980.…”

Estimation of divergence times in litostomatean ciliates (Ciliophora: Intramacronucleata), using Bayesian relaxed clock and 18S rRNA gene

“…The class Litostomatea Small and Lynn, 1981 is a diverse group of free-living and endosymbiotic ciliates that share an important ultrastructural synapomorphy: their somatic basal bodies bear a short kinetodesmal fibre, two transverse microtubule ribbons, and convergent postciliary microtubules main litostomatean groups has improved significantly over the last decade (Jang et al 2014Kwon et al 2014;Strüder-Kypke et al 2006, 2007Vd'ačný and Foissner 2013;Vd'ačný et al 2014Zhang et al 2012). However, diversification dynamic within the class Litostomatea has not been as yet subjected to thorough molecular clock analyses.…”