title: Reconsideration of the 'well-known' hypotrichous ciliate Pleurotricha curdsi (Shi et al., 2002) Gupta et al., 2003 (Ciliophora, Sporadotrichida), with notes on its morphology, morphogenesis and molecular phylogeny.
abstract: The oxytrichid species Pleurotricha curdsi (Shi et al., 2002) Gupta et al., 2003, isolated from a tributary of the Yangtze River in the Mudong district of Chongqing, southern China, was reinvestigated with emphasis on its morphology, morphogenesis and small-subunit (SSU) rDNA-based phylogeny. Compared with three previously described populations, the Mudong population of P. curdsi is characterized by its large body size, 170-295 × 65-110 μm in vivo, and by having a variable number of right marginal rows, either two or three. Likewise, the number of right marginal rows anlagen (RMA) is also variable, i.e. usually two, but sometimes several small extra anlagen that give rise to the formation of the third row, are present to the left of the RMAs. We posit that the Mudong population is an intermediate form between the three previously described populations. Phylogenetic analyses based on the SSU rDNA sequence data show that all populations of P. curdsi cluster with the type species of the genus, Pleurotricha lanceolata, in a clade nested within the Oxytrichidae.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, PR China.|Laboratory of Protozoology, Institute of Evolution & Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoteng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Yuhe
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D016798:Ciliophora / Q000145:classification; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009024:Morphogenesis; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D005227:Fatty Acids; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S