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Identification of a new species, Unicapsula aequilobata n. sp., and Unicapsula seriolae (Myxozoa: Myxosporea: Multivalvulida) in carangid fish from the South China Sea

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Abstract

An examination of 18 fishes caught in the South China Sea detected two Unicapsula spp. in the myofibers of the trunk muscles of carangid fishes: Unicapsula aequilobata n. sp. in the Japanese scad, Decapterus maruadsi, and Unicapsula seriolae in the yellowstripe scad, Selaroides leptolepis. They formed thin filamentous pseudocysts of 0.9–2.0 (mean 1.4) mm by 0.03–0.06 (0.04) mm (n = 5) and 0.9–3.4 (2.1) mm by 0.02–0.05 (0.04) mm (n = 12), respectively. Myxospores of U. aequilobata n. sp. are composed of three equal shell valves and measured 6.7–8.5 (7.3) μm in length and 7.1–8.8 (7.6) μm in width, and contained a prominent polar capsule (PC) 3.2–3.8 (3.6) μm in diameter (n = 18) and two rudimentary PCs. A nucleotide sequence (5127 bp) of the ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) array was obtained for the genetic characterization of this new species. Based on morphological and phylogenetic criteria, we erect U. aequilobata n. sp. as the sixteenth species in the genus Unicapsula. Nucleotide sequences of the 18S and 28S rDNA obtained from U. seriolae from the yellowstripe scad were almost identical (99.6–100% or 99.0–99.6%, respectively) to those from fish found in the seawaters around Australia and Japan. Consequently, this is a new host and geographical distribution records for U. seriolae. In addition, we illustrated the predicted secondary structure of the available 5.8S rDNA sequences of multivalvulid species, including those obtained from U. aequilobata n. sp., to assess the significance of interspecific nucleotide variations in this short rDNA unit.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Ph.D. Researcher (No: R17022) from the Faculty of Agricultural Science, Guangdong Ocean University (YCL); Grant-in-Aid for Food Science and Research 2019 from The TOYO SUISAN FOUNDATION (HS); Grant-in-Aid for International Collaboration Research 2019 from the Goho Llife Sciences International Fund (JYZ); and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant number 18K05995 (HS). We are especially thankful for the international research grant for SG from Yamaguchi University for her collaborative research in Yamaguchi University.

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  1. Ken Inoue and Ying-Chun Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Parasitology, Joint Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Yamaguchi University, 1677-1 Yoshida, Yamaguchi, 753-8515, Japan

    Ken Inoue, Subarna Ghosh & Hiroshi Sato

  2. College of Coastal Agricultural Sciences, Guangdong Ocean University, Mazhang, Zhanjiang, 524088, Guangdong, China

    Ying-Chun Li

  3. Parasitology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Kalayani, Kalyani, West Bengal, 741235, India

    Subarna Ghosh

  4. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Airlangga University, Campus C, Mulyorejo, Surabaya, 60115, Indonesia

    Muchammad Yunus & Hiroshi Sato

  5. Laboratory of Aquatic Parasitology, School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Jin-Yong Zhang

  6. Key Laboratory of Aquaculture Diseases Control (Ministry of Agriculture), State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Jin-Yong Zhang

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  1. Ken Inoue
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Correspondence to Hiroshi Sato.

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Inoue, K., Li, YC., Ghosh, S. et al. Identification of a new species, Unicapsula aequilobata n. sp., and Unicapsula seriolae (Myxozoa: Myxosporea: Multivalvulida) in carangid fish from the South China Sea. Parasitol Res 120, 2379–2389 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07108-9

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