title: Morphology of three new marine Frontonia species (Ciliophora; Peniculida) with note on the phylogeny of this genus.
abstract: Members of the ciliate genus Frontonia are common colonizers of periphytic communities in aquatic biotopes. Recent studies indicate that their species diversity is higher than previously supposed. In this study the morphology and infraciliature of three new species, Frontonia sinica spec. nov., F. pusilla spec. nov., and F. elegans spec. nov., isolated from coastal waters of China, were investigated using live observation and silver impregnation methods. Frontonia sinica differs from its congeners by the following combination of characters: ellipsoidal body, about 116 somatic and five or six vestibular kineties, peniculi 1 and 2 four-rowed, peniculus 3 two-rowed, and a single contractile vacuole. Frontonia pusilla has about 72 somatic kineties, four-rowed peniculi 1 and 2, a two-rowed peniculus 3, and two contractile vacuoles. Frontonia elegans has 73 somatic kineties, four-rowed peniculi 1 and 2, a three-rowed peniculus 3, and two contractile vacuoles. In the present work, six new small-subunit rRNA gene sequences of six Frontonia species are used to construct the phylogenetic trees. Our phylogenetic analysis supports that the genus Frontonia may be paraphyletic. Meanwhile, no pattern of correlation could be found between the structures of peniculi and the phylogenetic relationships of Frontonia species in the present study.
authors: Laboratory of Protozoology, Key Laboratory of Ecology and Environmental Science in Guangdong Higher Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
authors: Xinpeng
authors: X
authors: Fan
authors: Xiaofeng
authors: X
authors: Lin
authors: Weiwei
authors: W
authors: Liu
authors: Yuan
authors: Y
authors: Xu
authors: Saleh A
authors: SA
authors: Al-Farraj
authors: Khaled A S
authors: KA
authors: Al-Rasheid
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: Warren
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D008853:Microscopy; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016802:Oligohymenophorea / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015388:Organelles / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010802:Phylogeny; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000235:genetics; D012623:Seawater / Q000469:parasitology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D016053:RNA, Protozoan; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S