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Microorganisms
Special Issues
Diversity, Biology and Ecology of Complex Single-Cell Eukaryotes Ciliated Protozoa
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Diversity, Biology and Ecology of Complex Single-Cell Eukaryotes Ciliated Protozoa

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Parasitology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 3711

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xiangrui Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Marine Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
Interests: taxonomy; phylogeny; ecology of ciliates
Dr. Qianqian Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, China
Interests: phylogeny; transcriptomic; ecology of ciliates
Prof. Dr. Yong Jiang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
Interests: population and communy ecology of planktonic ciliates in polar and open sea

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Protozoa (ciliates) are a morphologically diverse and highly specialized group of microbial eukaryotes. These unicellular organisms constitute an important component of the microbial food web in most aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, that is, they play an essential role in energy flow, acting as the linker between primary production and a higher trophic level. In addition, these special organisms exhibit several unique characteristics, such as nuclear dimorphism, sexual reproduction, and complex cytoskeletal structures, making them important model microorganisms in cell biology, genetics, and evolution research.

There are about ten thousand reported ciliates to date, but most of them are inadequately described using modern techniques (e.g., silver staining and molecular surveys). Over the past 20 years, about 50 new species of ciliates have been reported every year, but it is estimated that more than 85% of free-living ciliates have yet to be discovered. This is especially typical for under-sampled environments, such as plateaus, cold water, salty lakes, and the deep sea. Although there is a large amount of molecular information on ciliates in the GenBank database, only a small proportion of them are based on accurate species identification. Therefore, phylogenetic relationships among many ciliate groups remain mostly unclear. In ecological research, ciliates generally tend to be lumped together with other single-cell eukaryotes, and thus, there is a pressing need for specialized exploring of ciliates’ ecological response to environmental and biological factors.

This Special Issue will gather research on the diversity, evolution, and ecology of ciliates across aquatic and terrestrial environments, including two main directions: 1) the diversity and evolutionary relationships based on morphological, morphogenesis, and phylogenetic analyses; and 2) the characterization of their ecological function, community organization, biogeography, and interactions with organisms at various trophic levels.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Xiangrui Chen
Dr. Qianqian Zhang
Prof. Dr. Yong Jiang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • taxonomy
  • morphology
  • molecular phylogeny
  • biogeography
  • ecological response
  • trophic relationship

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 4107 KiB  
Article
Culture-Independent Single-Cell PacBio Sequencing Reveals Epibiotic Variovorax and Nucleus Associated Mycoplasma in the Microbiome of the Marine Benthic Protist Geleia sp. YT (Ciliophora, Karyorelictea)
by Xiaoxin Zhang, Luping Bi, Eleni Gentekaki, Jianmin Zhao, Pingping Shen and Qianqian Zhang
Microorganisms 2023, 11(6), 1500; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061500 - 5 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1744
Abstract
Microbes in marine sediments constitute up to five-sixths of the planet’s total biomass, but their diversity is little explored, especially for those forming associations with unicellular protists. Heterotrophic ciliates are among the most dominant and diversified marine benthic protists and comprise hotspot niches [...] Read more.
Microbes in marine sediments constitute up to five-sixths of the planet’s total biomass, but their diversity is little explored, especially for those forming associations with unicellular protists. Heterotrophic ciliates are among the most dominant and diversified marine benthic protists and comprise hotspot niches of bacterial colonization. To date, studies using culture-independent single-cell approaches to explore microbiomes of marine benthic ciliates in nature are almost absent, even for the most ubiquitous species. Here, we characterize the major bacterial groups associated with a representative marine benthic ciliate, Geleia sp. YT, collected directly from the coastal zone of Yantai, China. PacBio sequencing of the nearly full-length 16Sr RNA genes was performed on single cells of Geleia. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis with genus-specific probes was further applied to locate the dominant bacterial groups. We identified a Variovorax-like bacterium as the major epibiotic symbiont residing in the kineties of the ciliate host. We provide evidence of a nucleus-associated bacterium related to the human pathogen Mycoplasma, which appeared prevalently in the local populations of Geleia sp. YT for 4 months. The most abundant bacterial taxa associated with Geleia sp. YT likely represent its core microbiome, hinting at the important roles of the ciliate-bacteria consortium in the marine benthos. Overall, this work has contributed to the knowledge of the diversity of life in the enigmatic marine benthic ciliate and its symbioses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity, Biology and Ecology of Complex Single-Cell Eukaryotes Ciliated Protozoa)
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15 pages, 12216 KiB  
Article
Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Studies of Two Brackish Pleuronema Species (Protista, Ciliophora, Scuticociliatia) from Subtropical Coastal Waters of China, with Report of a New Species
by Hui Zhang, Xuetong Zhao, Tingting Ye, Zehao Wu, Fan Wu, Xiangrui Chen and Mingjian Liu
Microorganisms 2023, 11(6), 1422; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061422 - 27 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1550
Abstract
The genus Pleuronema Dujardin, 1841, with nearly 40 morphospecies, is one of the largest genera in the well-known subclass Scuticociliatia. In the present study, two Pleuronema species were collected from subtropical coastal waters of the East China Sea. The morphology and molecular phylogeny [...] Read more.
The genus Pleuronema Dujardin, 1841, with nearly 40 morphospecies, is one of the largest genera in the well-known subclass Scuticociliatia. In the present study, two Pleuronema species were collected from subtropical coastal waters of the East China Sea. The morphology and molecular phylogeny were investigated using modern standard methods. Pleuronema ningboensis n. sp. is mainly characterized by an elliptical body in outline with the right ventrolateral side straight, 16–22 somatic kineties, 3–5 preoral kineties, and the posterior end of the membranelle 2a hook-like. An improved diagnosis of Pleuronema orientale Pan et al., 2015 was provided: body size in vivo usually 90–135 × 45–85 μm, right ventrolateral side convex, 36–51 somatic kineties, 1–5 preoral kineties, one to three spherical macronuclei, membranelle 2a arranged in a zig-zag pattern in middle portion, posterior region hook-like, both membranelle 1 and membranelle 3 composed of three rows of basal bodies. The small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) of two species is sequenced, and their molecular phylogeny is analyzed. The new species Pleuronema ningboensis n. sp. clusters with P. grolierei KF840519, P. setigerum JX310015, P. paucisaetosum KF206430, and P. cf. setigerum KF848875, basically in accord with the morphological characteristics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity, Biology and Ecology of Complex Single-Cell Eukaryotes Ciliated Protozoa)
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