title: Evaluation of taxonomic validity of four species of Acanthamoeba: A. divionensis, A. paradivionensis, A. mauritaniensis, and A. rhysodes, inferred from molecular analyses.
abstract: The taxonomy of Acanthamoeba spp., an amphizoic amoeba which causes granulomatous amoebic encephalitis and chronic amoebic keratitis, has been revised many times. The taxonomic validity of some species has yet to be assessed. In this paper, we analyzed the morphological characteristics, nuclear 18s rDNA and mitochondrial 16s rDNA sequences and the Mt DNA RFLP of the type strains of four Acanthamoeba species, which had been previously designated as A. divionensis, A. parasidionensis, A. mauritaniensis, and A. rhysodes. The four isolates revealed characteristic group II morphology. They exhibited 18S rDNA sequence differences of 0.2-1.1% with each other, but more than 2% difference from the other compared reference strains. Four isolates formed a different clade from that of A. castellanii Castellani and the other strains in morphological group II on the phylogenetic tree. In light of these results, A. paradivionensis, A. divionensis, and A. mauritaniensis should be regarded as synonyms for A. rhysodes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu 700-422, Korea.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Eun-Kyung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Hak-Sun
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Hae-Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Yeon-Chul
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Hyun-Hee
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Dong-Il
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000048:Acanthamoeba / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S