AUTHOR=Jiang Limin , Zhuang Wenbao , El-Serehy Hamed A. , Al-Farraj Saleh A. , Warren Alan , Hu Xiaozhong 

TITLE=Taxonomy and Molecular Phylogeny of Two New Species of Prostomatean Ciliates With Establishment of Foissnerophrys gen. n. (Alveolata, Ciliophora)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.686929

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2021.686929

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Prostomatean ciliates play important roles in the flow of material and energy in aquatic microbial food webs, and thus have attracted wide attention for over a century. Their taxonomy and systematics are, however, still poorly understood because of their relatively few taxonomically informative morphological characters. In this study, two new prostomateans, <italic>Lagynus binucleatus</italic> sp. n. and <italic>Foissnerophrys alveolata</italic> gen. n., sp. n., collected from a freshwater pool and the intertidal zone of a sandy beach, respectively, in Qingdao, China, are investigated using living observation, protargol staining, and SSU rRNA gene sequencing methods. The genus <italic>Lagynus</italic> is redefined, and the new species <italic>L. binucleatus</italic> sp. n. is established based on significant morphological differences with similar forms. Furthermore, a new genus, <italic>Foissnerophrys</italic> gen. n., is established based on a combination of morphological and molecular data with <italic>F. alveaolata</italic> sp. n. the type species by monotypy. The identities of intracellular prokaryotes of these two new species are discussed based on fluorescence <italic>in situ</italic> hybridization (FISH) data and newly obtained 16S rRNA gene sequences.</p>