Morphology and molecular phylogeny of Keronopsis koreana n. sp. (Ciliophora, Hypotricha), a new soil species from South Korea

Abstract

The morphology and molecular phylogeny of a new soil ciliate, Keronopsis koreana n. sp., which was discovered in soil from Jindo-gun, South Korea, were investigated. The new species is characterized by the following morphological features: cell more or less ellipsoid or ovoid, both ends broadly rounded; cortical granules irregularly distributed, colorless, 1 µm across; 35-54 adoral membranelles; 12-23 cirri in frontal corona; two frontal and two frontoventral cirral rows; two or three buccal cirri; 23-38 left and 22-37 right marginal cirri; three bipolar dorsal kineties; and two macronuclear nodules and three to five micronuclei. Phylogenetic analyses show that Keronopsis koreana n. sp. is placed within a clade containing K. helluo (type species of Keronopsis) and species belonging to Paraholosticha, Uroleptoides, Parabistichella, Orthoamphisiella, Lamtostyla, and Bistichella in non-dorsomarginalian hypotrichs. Also, the sequences belonging to the Keronopsidae did not cluster together. In addition, a new combination is provided: Parabistichella tasmaniensis (Blatterer and Foissner, 1988) n. comb. (original combination: Keronopsis tasmaniensis).

Keywords: Ciliate; Keronopsidae; Parabistichella tasmaniensis n. comb.; SSU rRNA gene; Taxonomy.