Paramecium putrinum (Ciliophora, Protozoa): the first insight into the variation of two DNA fragments - molecular support for the existence of cryptic species

Sebastian Tarcz; Maria Rautian; Alexey Potekhin; Natalia Sawka; Alexandra Beliavskaya; Andrey Kiselev; Irina Nekrasova; Ewa Przyboś

doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.01.019

Paramecium putrinum (Ciliophora, Protozoa): the first insight into the variation of two DNA fragments - molecular support for the existence of cryptic species

Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2014 Apr:73:140-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.01.019. Epub 2014 Jan 28.

Authors

Sebastian Tarcz¹, Maria Rautian², Alexey Potekhin³, Natalia Sawka⁴, Alexandra Beliavskaya², Andrey Kiselev², Irina Nekrasova³, Ewa Przyboś⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków 31-016, Sławkowska 17, Poland. Electronic address: tarcz@isez.pan.krakow.pl.
² Laboratory of Protistology and Experimental Zoology, Faculty of Biology and Soil Science, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7/9, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia.
³ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology and Soil Science, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7/9, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia.
⁴ Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków 31-016, Sławkowska 17, Poland.

PMID: 24486879
DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.01.019

Abstract

Paramecium putrinum (Claparede & Lachmann 1858) is one of the smallest (80-140 μm long) species of the genus Paramecium. Although it commonly occurs in freshwater reservoirs, no molecular studies of P. putrinum have been conducted to date. Herein we present an assessment of molecular variation in 27 strains collected from widely separated populations by using two selected DNA fragments (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-5'LSU rDNA and COI mtDNA). Both the trees and haplotype networks reconstructed for both genome fragments show that the studied strains of P. putrinum form five main haplogroups. The mean distance between the studied strains is p-distance=0.007/0.068 (rDNA/COI) and exhibits similar variability as that between P. bursaria syngens. Based on these data, one could hypothesize that the clusters revealed in the present study may correspond to previously reported syngens and that there are at least five cryptic species within P. putrinum.

Keywords: Ciliophora; Cryptic species; Intraspecific polymorphism; Paramecium putrinum; Syngens; Two-locus DNA barcoding.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic
DNA, Mitochondrial / genetics
DNA, Ribosomal / genetics
Genome / genetics
Haplotypes / genetics
Paramecium / classification*
Paramecium / genetics*
Phylogeny*
Polymorphism, Genetic / genetics*
Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

DNA, Mitochondrial
DNA, Ribosomal