New contributions to the Cyrtophoria ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora): Establishment of new taxa and phylogenetic analyses using two ribosomal genes

Abstract

Periphytic ciliates play a vital role in the material cycle and energy flow of microbial food web, however, their taxonomy and biodiversity are inadequately studied given their high species richness. Two new and one little known species, viz. Derouxella lembodes gen. et sp. nov., Cyrtophoron multivacuolatum sp. nov., and Cyrtophoron apsheronica Aliev, 1991, collected from coastal waters of China, were investigated using modern methods. Derouxella gen. nov. can be recognized by having dorsoventrally flattened body, a podite, one fragmented preoral kinety, two parallel circumoral kineties, and somatic kineties progressively shortened from right to left. Morphological classification

Morphology, morphogenesis, and molecular characterization of Castula specialis sp. nov. (Ciliophora, Armophorea, Metopida)

“…The SSU rRNA gene sequences were amplified, using the following primer combinations: 18S‐11F‐Karyo and 5.8SR (Gao et al., 2012; Zhuang et al., 2022) for the Chinese population or Medlin A and Medlin B (Medlin et al., 1988) for the Czech and Mexican populations. A high‐fidelity DNA polymerase, the Q5 Hot Start High‐Fidelity 2× Master Mix (New England BioLabs), or a taq DNA polymerase (PPP Master Mix, Top‐Bio) were used for PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) amplification (Wang et al., 2023). The PCR products were purified, using the EasyPure®Quik Gel Extraction Kit (TransGen, EG101, Beijing) or the Gel/PCR DNA Fragments Extraction Kit (Qiagen).…”