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New contributions to the biodiversity of ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from Antarctica, including a description of Gastronauta multistriata nov. spec.

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Abstract

Antarctica is a remote and isolated biotope which makes it an ideal location for studying new and endemic species. Since there is little literature available on the diversity of ciliates in this area, a taxonomic survey of ciliates from melt-water of Collins glacier, King George Island, was carried out from January to March 2006. As a result, the morphology and infraciliature of five ciliates, including one new species, are described using live observations and silver staining: Gastronauta multistriata nov. spec., Neokeronopsis asiatica Foissner et al., 2010, Paraholosticha muscicola Kahl, 1932, Oxytricha sp., and Cyclidium glaucoma Müller, 1786. Gastronauta multistriata nov. spec. is distinguished from its congeners by the following combination of characters: cell size in vivo on average 80 × 40 μm; 5–9 kineties in left ciliary field; 18–23 kineties in right ciliary field, including 10–12 postoral kineties; 7–10 preoral kineties; dorsal brush along anterior dorsal margin, consisting of 5–8 groups of basal bodies. The only minor differences between the current population of N. asiatica and a previously described Antarctic population are the numbers of caudal cirri (6–10 vs. 8–15) and dorsal kineties (11–13 vs. 12–18). Paraholosticha sterkii is synonymised with P. muscicola. The Antarctic population of C. glaucoma corresponds well with a former population from China, the only difference being the number of kinetids in SK n (11–17 vs. 9–11). This work will contribute to the understanding of ciliate diversity in this little studied area.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Numbers: 31201708, 31430077), the State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University (Project Number: 2014RCDW01), the King Saud University Deanship for Scientific Research, Prolific Research Group (PRG-1436-01), the Alfred Wegener Institüt (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the programme “Antarctic Research with Comparative Studies in Arctic Regions”. The manuscript was substantially improved by the anonymous reviewers and by the additional suggestions by the monitoring editor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Yuan Xu

  2. Laboratory of Protozoology, Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Yuan Xu & Weibo Song

  3. The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Chen Shao

  4. Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Xinpeng Fan

  5. School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Alan Warren

  6. Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Khaled A. S. Al-Rasheid

  7. Institut für Zoologie Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Norbert Wilbert

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  1. Yuan Xu
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  2. Chen Shao
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  3. Xinpeng Fan
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  7. Norbert Wilbert
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Correspondence to Norbert Wilbert.

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Xu, Y., Shao, C., Fan, X. et al. New contributions to the biodiversity of ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from Antarctica, including a description of Gastronauta multistriata nov. spec.. Polar Biol 39, 1439–1453 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1869-7

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