Characterization of a photosynthetic Euglena strain isolated from an acidic hot mud pool of a volcanic area of Costa Rica.
Abstract Conspicuous green patches on the surface of an acidic hot mud pool located near the Rincón de la Vieja volcano (northwestern Costa Rica) consisted of apparently unialgal populations of a chloroplast-bearing euglenoid. Morphological and physiological studies showed that it is a non-flagellated photosynthetic Euglena strain able to grow in defined mineral media at temperatures up to 40 degrees C and exhibiting higher thermotolerance than Euglena gracilis SAG 5/15 in photosynthetic activity analyses. Molecular phylogeny studies using 18S rDNA and GapC genes indicated that this strain is closely related to Euglena mutabilis, another acid-tolerant photosynthetic euglenoid, forming a clade deeply rooted in the Euglenales lineage. To our knowledge this is the most thermotolerant euglenoid described so far and the first Euglenozoan strain reported to inhabit acidic hot aquatic habitats.
Sittenfeld
Ana
A
Centro de Investigación en Biología Celular y Molecular (CIBCM), Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, San José, Costa Rica.
Mora
Marielos
M
Ortega
José María
JM
Albertazzi
Federico
F
Cordero
Andrés
A
Roncel
Mercedes
M
Sánchez
Ethel
E
Vargas
Maribel
M
Fernández
Mario
M
Weckesser
Jürgen
J
Serrano
Aurelio
A