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Rajter Ľ, Lu B, Rassoshanska E, Dunthorn M. Future prospects for investigating ciliate biodiversity. ACTA PROTOZOOL 2022. [DOI: 10.4467/16890027ap.22.005.16236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Ciliates have a long history of being central in evolutionary and ecological studies on eukaryotic microorganisms. Although thousands of species have been discovered, their total diversity still remains unknown. Here, we will discuss two unsolved problems that hinder the further exploration of ciliate diversity at the species level, and potential solutions to these problems are proposed. First, ciliate morphospecies are difficult to identify because the different silver stains are not scalable (they do not represent high-throughput methods) and basic supplies are lacking (e.g., protargol); a solution may be the development of fluorescent staining techniques. Second, ciliate phylogenetic species are difficult to identify because of extensive paralogy in nuclear-protein-coding genes; a solution may be to concentrate on sequencing mitochondrial genomes. These two approaches could be integrated into a high-throughput fluorescent-single-cell sorting and mitochondrial genomes sequencing process that would enable the observation and better understanding of ciliate species on a massive scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ľubomír Rajter
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Phycology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Borong Lu
- Institute of Evolution & Marine Biodiversity, & College of Fisheries, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China
| | - Erika Rassoshanska
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Micah Dunthorn
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Doliwa A, Dunthorn M, Rassoshanska E, Mahé F, Bass D, Duarte Ritter C. Identifying Potential Hosts of Short-Branch Microsporidia. Microb Ecol 2021; 82:549-553. [PMID: 33420911 PMCID: PMC8384821 DOI: 10.1007/s00248-020-01657-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Microsporidia are obligate parasites that are closely related to Fungi. While the widely known "long-branch" Microsporidia infect mostly metazoans, the hosts of "short-branch" Microsporidia are only partially characterized or not known at all. Here, we used network analyses from Neotropical rainforest soil metabarcoding data, to infer co-occurrences between environmental lineages of short-branch microsporidians and their potential hosts. We found significant co-occurrences with several taxa, especially with Apicomplexa, Cercozoa, and Fungi, as well as some Metazoa. Our results are the first step to identify potential hosts of the environmental lineages of short-branch microsporidians, which can be targeted in future molecular and microscopic studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annemie Doliwa
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstrasse 5, S05 R04 H83, 45141, Essen, Germany
| | - Micah Dunthorn
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstrasse 5, S05 R04 H83, 45141, Essen, Germany
- Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), University of Duisburg-Essen, 45141, Essen, Germany
| | - Erika Rassoshanska
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstrasse 5, S05 R04 H83, 45141, Essen, Germany
| | - Frédéric Mahé
- CIRAD, UMR BGPI, F-34398, Montpellier, France
- BGPI, Université de Montpellier, CIRAD, IRD, Montpellier SupAgro, Montpellier, France
| | - David Bass
- Centre for Environment, Aquaculture and Fisheries Science (Cefas), Barrack Road, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8UB, UK
- Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
- Sustainable Aquaculture Futures, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Camila Duarte Ritter
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstrasse 5, S05 R04 H83, 45141, Essen, Germany.
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