title: Shedding Light on the Polyphyletic Thecate Amoeba Genus Plagiophrys: Transition of Some of its Species to Rhizaspis (Tectofilosida, Thecofilosea, Cercozoa) and the Establishment of Sacciforma gen. nov. and Rhogostomidae fam. nov. (Cryomonadida, Thecofilosea, Cercozoa).
abstract: For over a century testate amoebae have been a favoured group of interest for protistologists, however there is still an endless amount of unanswered questions. The genus Plagiophrys, Claparède and Lachmann 1859, is still one of the unresolved mysteries as it comprises species with high morphological diversity of which no molecular data are available. To shed light on the phylogeny and taxonomy of Plagiophrys we (a) cultured four isolates of three Plagiophrys morphospecies and provided morphological observations (b) obtained three new SSU RNA gene sequences and conducted phylogenetic analyses of the Thecofilosea and (c) did intensive literature research, showing that Plagiophrys is polyphyletic. We partially untangle this polyphyly by combining several of its species with the genus Rhizaspis, Skuja 1948. Furthermore, we establish Sacciforma gen. nov. to accommodate P. sacciformis as it groups within the formerly known Rhizaspididae, which do not comprise our isolates of Rhizaspis (and therefore were renamed Rhogostomidae) since Rhizaspis it groups with maximum support as a sister-group to the Pseudodifflugiidae.
authors.affiliation: University of Cologne, Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Faculty of Zoology, Zülpicher Str. 47b, 50674 Köln, Germany. Electronic address: kenneth.dumack@uni-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dumack
authors.affiliation: University of Cologne, Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Faculty of Zoology, Zülpicher Str. 47b, 50674 Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: Hüsna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Öztoprak
authors.affiliation: University of Cologne, Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Faculty of Zoology, Zülpicher Str. 47b, 50674 Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: Lioba
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rüger
authors.affiliation: University of Cologne, Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Faculty of Zoology, Zülpicher Str. 47b, 50674 Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonkowski
mesh_terms: D056907:Cercozoa / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA
chemical_list: D016053:RNA, Protozoan
keywords: Rhogostoma; algivorous; amoeba; phylogeny.; protist; testate amoebae