title: Morphology, phylogeny and seasonal prevalence of Ceratomyxa arabica n. sp. (Myxozoa: Myxosporea) infecting the gallbladder of Acanthopagrus bifasciatus (Pisces: Sparidae) from the Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia.
abstract: A new myxozoan species was recovered from the gallbladder of Acanthopagrus bifasciatus from the Arabian Gulf in Saudi Arabia. The overall prevalence of infection was 28.6 % (32/112), with the highest prevalence 42.9 % (12/28) in winter and 10.7 % (3/28) as the lowest in autumn. The new species is described using its morphological characteristics and small subunit (SSU) rDNA. Spores of Ceratomyxa arabica n. sp. are stubby-shaped with unequal shell valves, 8 (7-9) μm in length × 12 (10-14) μm in thickness. Polar capsules are sub-spherical, unequal, 3 (2.5-3.5) × 2 (1.5-2.5) μm. The polar filament has three turns and is slightly slanted towards the longitudinal axis of the capsules. The small subunit rDNA (SSU rDNA) sequence confirms that the present species is a member of the genus Ceratomyxa, being most closely related to Ceratomyxa cardinalis with a sequence similarity of 97.77 %.
authors.affiliation: Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Hussain A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Al-Qahtani
authors.forename: Lamjed
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mansour
authors.forename: Saleh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Quraishy
authors.forename: Abdel-Azeem S
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Abdel-Baki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D005704:Gallbladder / Q000469:parasitology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D055764:Myxozoa / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics; D010273:Parasitic Diseases, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D010473:Perciformes / Q000469:parasitology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D015995:Prevalence; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012621:Seasons; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013170:Spores / Q000648:ultrastructure