TY - JOUR
T1 - Cryptic Diversity within Morphospecies of Testate Amoebae (Amoebozoa: Arcellinida) in New England Bogs and Fens
AU - Oliverio, Angela M.
AU - Lahr, Daniel J.G.
AU - Nguyen, Truc
AU - Katz, Laura A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Jessica R. Grant, Jian Hua Lin, Adelaide Gordon, Charlene Gemora, Rose Katz-Berger for contributions to this research. Funding for the work comes from an NSF RUI Systematics grant (DEB RUI: 0919152). DJGL has been funded by CNPq GDE Fellowship 200853/2007-4 and a CNPq Post-Doctoral Fellowship 501089/2011-0. AMO was funded by Smith College Tomlinson Fund. Permits were obtained for all sites, from either National Park Service (Acadia) or Nature Conservancy (Hawley Bog).
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - Testate (shelled) amoebae are abundant and diverse in Sphagnum-rich areas of bogs and fens. Test morphology is standardly used to identify morphospecies as tests have varying shapes and compositions (e.g. siliceous, proteinaceous, agglutinated, or even calcareous). The recent application of molecular tools has revealed a greater complexity than morphology suggests, including multiple cryptic species. Here, we assess the biodiversity and relationships among eight morphospecies: Hyalosphenia elegans, Hyalosphenia papilio, Nebela carinata, Nebela flabellulum, Nebela militaris, Nebela tincta, Nebela tubulosa, and Quadrulella symmetrica using small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU-rDNA). An SSU-rDNA phylogeny including 20 specimens from GenBank and 63 from this study reveals diversity within and among morphospecies and low resolution among some Nebela spp. Previous SSU-rDNA work on a limited sample of these species showed non-monophyly in the genus Hyalosphenia. Our analyses confirm this pattern and further suggest that other Nebela genera and morphospecies are not monophyletic. Moreover, inclusion of up to 24 specimens per species indicates non-monophyly of the morphospecies Hyalosphenia papilio and Hyalosphenia elegans. Our results suggest the morphological plasticity of testate amoebae across evolutionary time scales and that a combination of morphology and molecular analyses is needed to understand the biodiversity of these taxa.
AB - Testate (shelled) amoebae are abundant and diverse in Sphagnum-rich areas of bogs and fens. Test morphology is standardly used to identify morphospecies as tests have varying shapes and compositions (e.g. siliceous, proteinaceous, agglutinated, or even calcareous). The recent application of molecular tools has revealed a greater complexity than morphology suggests, including multiple cryptic species. Here, we assess the biodiversity and relationships among eight morphospecies: Hyalosphenia elegans, Hyalosphenia papilio, Nebela carinata, Nebela flabellulum, Nebela militaris, Nebela tincta, Nebela tubulosa, and Quadrulella symmetrica using small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU-rDNA). An SSU-rDNA phylogeny including 20 specimens from GenBank and 63 from this study reveals diversity within and among morphospecies and low resolution among some Nebela spp. Previous SSU-rDNA work on a limited sample of these species showed non-monophyly in the genus Hyalosphenia. Our analyses confirm this pattern and further suggest that other Nebela genera and morphospecies are not monophyletic. Moreover, inclusion of up to 24 specimens per species indicates non-monophyly of the morphospecies Hyalosphenia papilio and Hyalosphenia elegans. Our results suggest the morphological plasticity of testate amoebae across evolutionary time scales and that a combination of morphology and molecular analyses is needed to understand the biodiversity of these taxa.
KW - Arcellinida
KW - Cryptic species
KW - SSU-rDNA phylogeny
KW - Testate amoebae
KW - Tubulinea
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U2 - 10.1016/j.protis.2014.02.001
DO - 10.1016/j.protis.2014.02.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 24657945
AN - SCOPUS:84896536317
SN - 1434-4610
VL - 165
SP - 196
EP - 207
JO - Protist
JF - Protist
IS - 2
ER -