title: Characterization of two urostylid ciliates, Metaurostylopsis flavicana spec. nov. and Tunicothrix wilberti (Lin & Song, 2004) Xu et al., 2006 (Ciliophora, Stichotrichia), from a mangrove nature protection area in China.
abstract: Two marine stichotrich ciliates, Metaurostylopsis flavicana spec. nov. and Tunicothrix wilberti (Lin & Song, 2004) Xu et al., 2006, isolated from the Shenzhen Mangrove Protection Area on the coast of the South China Sea, were investigated using live observation and protargol impregnation techniques. Metaurostylopsis flavicana is characterized by its elongate body shape, yellowish body colour and bright-yellow cortical granules that are either grouped around the cirri and the dorsal cilia or aligned between the rows of cirri and dorsal cilia. It has four to eight frontal, two frontoterminal, one buccal and seven to ten transverse cirri, a mid-ventral complex comprising 13-17 midventral cirral pairs in a row that extends about three-fifths of the body length, four left and three right marginal rows and three complete dorsal kineties. The small subunit rRNA gene of this species was sequenced and phylogenetic trees were constructed in which M. flavicana does not group with its congeners, suggesting that the genus Metaurostylopsis is paraphyletic. Some supplementary morphological and morphogenetic traits for Tunicothrix wilberti are also documented.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protozoology, Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, PR China.
authors.forename: Yangang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.|Laboratory of Protozoology, Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaozhong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protozoology, Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Zoology Department, King Saud University, PO Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Khaled A S
authors.initials: KAS
authors.lastname: Al-Rasheid
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Warren
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D016798:Ciliophora / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA