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Halocafeteria seosinensis gen. et sp. nov. (Bicosoecida), a halophilic bacterivorous nanoflagellate isolated from a solar saltern

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Abstract

Recently, heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) have been reported to actively ingest prokaryotes in high salinity waters. We report the isolation and culture of an HNF from a Korean saltern pond of 300‰ salinity. The organism is biflagellated with an acronematic anterior flagellum and never glides on surfaces. The mitochondria have tubular cristae. Neither transitional helix nor spiral fiber were observed in the transition zones of the flagella. The cell has a cytostome supported by an arc of eight microtubules, suggesting that our isolate is a bicosoecid. Our isolate had neither mastigonemes, lorica, body scales, nor cytopharynx and thus could not be placed in any of the presently described bicosoecid genera. Phylogenetic analysis of 18S rRNA gene sequences from stramenopiles confirmed the bicosoecid affinities of our isolate, but did not place it within any established genus or family. Its closest relatives include Caecitellus and Cafeteria. The optimal range of growth temperature was 30–35°C. The isolated HNF grew optimally at 150‰ salinity and tolerated up to 363‰ salinity, but it failed to grow below 75‰ salinity, indicating that it could be a borderline extreme halophile. On the basis of its morphological features and position in 18S rRNA trees we propose a novel genus for our isolate; Halocafeteria, n. gen. The species name Halocafeteria seosinensis sp. nov. is proposed.

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Acknowledgments

The present study was supported by project BK 21 of the Korean government, and NSERC grant 298366-04 to AGBS. Some computational resources were funded by Genome Atlantic. AGBS thanks the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) for support as a ‘scholar’. Thanks to Melissa Morne (Dalhousie University) for additional phylogenetic analyses with newly published sequences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular and Microbial Ecology Laboratory, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Jong S. Park & Byung C. Cho

  2. Program in Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biology, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Dalhousie University, Halifax, B3H 4J1, Canada

    Alastair G. B. Simpson

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  1. Jong S. Park
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  2. Byung C. Cho
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  3. Alastair G. B. Simpson
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Correspondence to Alastair G. B. Simpson.

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Communicated by K. Horikoshi.

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Park, J.S., Cho, B.C. & Simpson, A.G.B. Halocafeteria seosinensis gen. et sp. nov. (Bicosoecida), a halophilic bacterivorous nanoflagellate isolated from a solar saltern. Extremophiles 10, 493–504 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-006-0001-x

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