Morphological and molecular characterization of a new species of Stephanopogon, Stephanopogon pattersoni n. sp

Stephanopogon is a taxon of multiciliated protists that is now known to belong to Heterolobosea. Small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) phylogenies indicate that Stephanopogon is closely related to or descended from Percolomonas, a small tetraflagellate with a different feeding structure, thus these morphologically dissimilar taxa are of ongoing evolutionary interest. A new strain of Stephanopogon, KM041, was cultured, then characterized by light microscopy, electron microscopy, and SSU rDNA sequencing. KM041 is 18-35 μm (mean 26.8 μm) long, with six main ventral ciliary rows, one ventro-lateral ciliary row, and three anterior barbs. It closely resembles Stephanopogon minuta Lei et al. in morphology, and is very closely related to an extinct culture "S. aff. minuta", yet is markedly dissimilar in SSU rDNA sequence from a different isolate identified as S. minuta. This confirms that there are at least two distinct lineages of S. minuta-like cells, and we describe KM041 as a new species, Stephanopogon pattersoni n. sp. The ultrastructure of KM041 resembles that of previously studied Stephanopogon species, though it has a novel paraxonemal structure in a few cilia. We note that a sub-basal-body pad and bulbous axosome are unlikely to be apomorphies for the Stephanopogon-Percolomonas clade.