title: Viable Species of Flamella (Amoebozoa: Variosea) Isolated from Ancient Arctic Permafrost Sediments.
abstract: Six viable strains of amoebae belonging to the genus Flamella (Amoebozoa, Variosea) were isolated from permafrost sediments sampled in the Russian Arctic region. Two of them are from late Pleistocene permafrost in North-East Siberia, and four--from Holocene and late Pleistocene in North-West Siberia. Light- and electron-microscopic study and molecular phylogeny show that these isolates represent two new species belonging to the genus Flamella. Both species are cyst-forming. This is a remarkable case of high resistance of protozoan cysts, allowing them to survive and recover an amoebae population after a very long, geologically significant period of rest; a "snapshot" of evolution in time. This study directly shows for the first time that amoeba cysts can be conserved not only for years and decades but for many thousand years and then recover, contributing to the formation of an active microbial community. We propose to name the new species as Flamella pleistocenica n.sp. and Flamella beringiania n.sp. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the genus Flamella is a robust and potentially species-rich group of Variosea.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskaya 2, 142290, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia. Electronic address: lushmakova@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lyubov
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shmakova
authors.affiliation: Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaja nab. 7/9, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Natalya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bondarenko
authors.affiliation: Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaja nab. 7/9, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smirnov
mesh_terms: D056894:Amoebozoa / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001110:Arctic Regions; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D065946:Permafrost / Q000469:parasitology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012800:Siberia
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan
keywords: Amoebozoa; Flamella; cryptobiosis.; permafrost; phylogeny; systematics