Cunea n. g. (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida) with two cryptic species isolated from different areas of the ocean

Kudryavtsev, Alexander; Pawlowski, Jan

Type

Article

Authors

Kudryavtsev, Alexander

Pawlowski, Jan

Date

2015-06

Permanent link to this record

http://hdl.handle.net/10754/597912

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Abstract

© 2015 Elsevier GmbH. This paper describes a new genus, Cunea n. g., of marine naked amoebae with two cryptic species, Cunea profundata and Cunea thuwala, isolated from distant localities in the ocean and different depths (Brazilian abyssal plain, Western Atlantic Ocean, depth >5. km and the Red Sea off the Saudi Arabian coast, depth ca. 58.7. m). Both species are very similar to each other in the set of light microscopic and ultrastructural characters and might be described as a single species, yet their genetic divergence based on 3 molecular markers (small-subunit ribosomal RNA, actin and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1) corresponds to the level of variation typically observed between different morphospecies of Amoebozoa. In addition, the studied strains differ strongly in their temperature tolerance ranges, C. profundata isolated from the cold Atlantic deep-sea habitat being able to reproduce under lower temperatures than C. thuwala isolated from the warm Red Sea benthos. Molecular phylogenetic analysis based on SSU rRNA gene shows that the new genus robustly branches within the Dactylopodida, but forms an independent clade within this order that does not group with any of its known genera.

Citation

Kudryavtsev A, Pawlowski J (2015) Cunea n. g. (Amoebozoa, Dactylopodida) with two cryptic species isolated from different areas of the ocean. European Journal of Protistology 51: 197–209. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejop.2015.04.002.

Sponsors

We are grateful to the organizers, crew and all scientists on board the deep-sea DIVA3 expedition of the German RV Meteor (cruise M79/1), and to Francis L. Mallon, Prof. Stein Kaartvedt, crew of the RV Thuwal and staff of the Red Sea Research Center (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) for their hospitality and organizing sampling in the Red Sea. This study utilized equipment of the Core Facility Centers “Culturing Microorganisms” and “Development of Molecular and Cell Technologies” at Saint-Petersburg State University. Partially supported by the grants IZLR Z3_128338 from Science and Technology Cooperation Program Switzerland – Russia to JP, 12-04-33229-mol-a-ved from the Russian Foundation for Basic Researchto AK, and 1.38.251.2014 from St-Petersburg State University. AK acknowledges financial support from KAUST for travel, accommodation and sampling in the Red Sea.