title: Fine-tune investigations on three stylonychid (Ciliophora, Hypotricha) ciliates.
abstract: The morphology and morphogenesis of two stylonychid ciliates, Stylonychia ammermanniGupta et al., 2001 and Tetmemena bifaria (Stokes, 1887) Berger, 2001, isolated from soil samples of Lombardia region, Northern Italy, and water samples from Cheonggancheon stream, South Korea, were investigated. The Italian population of S. ammermanni was found to be very similar in morphology to the Indian type population and the junior synonym S. harbinensisShi and Ammermann, 2004 since most of the morphometric data overlapped. On the contrary, the Korean population of S. ammermanni showed some non-overlapping differences in ciliature suggesting a separation at subspecies level, i.e., S. ammermanni ammermanni and S. ammermanni koreana nov. subspec. Furthermore, the resting cyst of the Italian population of S. ammermanni has many ring-shaped structures on the surface which, however, were not observed in the Korean population. Phylogenetic analyses based on the SSU rRNA gene sequences show that the Italian and Korean populations of S. ammermanni fit well into the S. mytilus complex and moderately support the subspecies separation. Additionally, we split Tetmemena bifaria into two subspecies, viz., T. bifaria bifaria and T. bifaria minima nov. subspec. based on differences in the number of adoral membranelles and number of cirri in the marginal rows of the Italian and the Argentinian populations in comparison with the populations described by Wirnsberger et al. (1985).
authors.affiliation: School of Bioscience and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, Camerino, 62032, MC, Italy; Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 44610, South Korea.
authors.forename: Santosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: School of Bioscience and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, Camerino, 62032, MC, Italy.
authors.forename: Daizy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bharti
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology III, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University of Madrid, José Antonio Novais 12, Madrid, 28040, Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Quintela-Alonso
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 44610, South Korea. Electronic address: mkshin@ulsan.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Mann Kyoon
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: School of Bioscience and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, Camerino, 62032, MC, Italy. Electronic address: antonietta.laterza@unicam.it.
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: La Terza
mesh_terms: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D016810:Hypotrichida / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics; D007558:Italy; D010802:Phylogeny; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012987:Soil / Q000469:parasitology; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012987:Soil
keywords: Cryptic species; Italy; Korea; Resting cyst; SSU rRNA gene; Stylonychia mytilus complex