title: Evidence for an independent radiation of endosymbiotic litostome ciliates within Australian marsupial herbivores.
abstract: The recent discovery of isotrichid-like ciliates occurring as endosymbionts in macropodid marsupials posed interesting questions in regard to both their phyletic origin (all previous records confined to eutherian mammals) and their morphological evolution (Australian forms possibly representing missing links between previously described genera). The SSU rRNA gene was sequenced for three species (Dasytricha dehorityi, D. dogieli, and Bitricha tasmaniensis) and aligned against representatives of all major ciliate classes. The Australian species did not group with the other isotrichid species but instead formed an independent radiation. Discrepancies between recent global phylogenies of the phylum Ciliophora were examined by manipulation of the aligned sequence data set. Sources of conflict between these studies did not stem from differences in outgroup choice or phylogenetic reconstruction methods. Differences in the application of confidence limits and primary sequence alignment have probably resulted in the reporting of spurious associations which are not supported by more conservative confidence or alignment methodology. At present, the ciliate subphylum Intramacronucleata is an unresolved polytomy which may be due to deficiencies in the SSU rRNA gene sequence dataset or indicate that the ciliates radiated into their extant classes by rapid burst-like evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology & Parasitology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia. s.cameron@mailbox.uq.edu.au
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Adlard
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: O'Donoghue
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016798:Ciliophora / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008394:Marsupialia / Q000469:parasitology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013559:Symbiosis
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S