Abstract
One new marine oligotrich ciliate, Omegastrombidium hongkongense n. sp., was isolated from a bloom of Noctiluca scuntillans near Port Shelter, Hong Kong. The morphology and infraciliature of this new species were studied on both living and protargol-stained specimens. Its phylogenetic position was discussed based on the sequence of the small subunit rRNA gene. O. hongkongense is different from its congeners with special characters. The cells are usually heart-shaped, and the cell size usually is (20–35) × (20–30) μm in vivo. Its deep buccal cavity extends obliquely to about 1/2 of cell length. It shows prominent apical protrusion. The adoral zone of membranelles is divided into 17–19 collar membranelles and four buccal membranelles. It has one ball-like macronucleus. The girdle kinety forms a closed loop which obliquely surrounds the body. The ventral kinety and thigmotactic membranelles are not observed. The SSU rRNA sequence of O. hongkongense was close to those of Strombidium paracalkinsi and Varistrombidium kelum with approximately 99% similarity. In the phylogenetic trees, O. hongkongense can be grouped with O. elegans and V. kielum species with very low support (16% ML).
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31301868), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Nos. GRF 661610 and 661912), the Hong Kong Scholar Programme (No. HKSP13SC03), NSFC-Guangdong Province Joint Foundation (No. U1301 235) and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. S2013040013192). We are grateful to Ms. Pui Yin Lee for her logistical support.
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Shen, Z., Liu, W., Zhang, S. et al. Taxonomy, Morphology and Phylogeny of a New Oligotrich Ciliate–Omegastrombidium hongkongense n. sp. (Protozoa: Ciliophora) from Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. J. Ocean Univ. China 17, 890–896 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-018-3483-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-018-3483-0