Morphological, developmental, and ecological characteristics of the suctorian ciliate Ephelota gigantea (Ciliophora, Phyllopharyngea, Ephelotidae) found on cultured wakame seaweed in Northeastern Japan

Wakame seaweed is an important aquatic resource in Iwate Prefecture. However, a suctorian Ephelota gigantea sometimes causes great damage to wakame culture. Since little is known about the biological characteristics of E. gigantea, its detailed morphology and temporal change of biological characteristics during the 2010 culture season were investigated. Scanning electron microscope observations showed that E. gigantea had different striation patterns on the stalk; there was a swell made of cement by which the stalk was attached to wakame firmly; and the buds had cilia arranged in concentric circles about a ring in the center of the ventral side. A suctorian parasite was found to infect E. gigantea, and the infection seemed to have decreased drastically the attached density of E. gigantea on wakame. Cell size of parasite-infected E. gigantea individuals was larger than that of uninfected individuals, probably because larger E. gigantea has larger surface area for attachment of the parasite. Cyst formation or conjugating individuals were not observed.

[1]  S. Tazioli,et al.  Ecological and morphological characteristics of Ephelota gemmipara (Ciliophora, Suctoria), epibiontic on Eudendrium racemosum (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Adriatic Sea. , 2013, European journal of protistology.

[2]  G. FERNANDEZ-LEBORANS.  Epibionts on the krill (Euphausia pacifica) from the E coast of Japan , 2013 .

[3]  Y. Endo,et al.  Growth Characteristics of Ephelota gigantea: a Pest to Seaweed Culture along the Northeastern Coast of Japan , 2011 .

[4]  T. Gojobori,et al.  Multiple Plastids Collected by the Dinoflagellate Dinophysis mitra through Kleptoplastidy , 2011, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[5]  D. Lynn,et al.  The Ciliated Protozoa: Characterization, Classification, and Guide to the Literature , 2010 .

[6]  K. Al-Rasheid,et al.  Redefinitions of Two Marine Suctorian Ciliates, Ephelota gemmipara (Hertwig, 1876) Bütschli, 1889 and E. crustaceorum Haller, 1880 (Ciliophora, Suctoria), with a Brief Description of the Asexual Reproduction Process in E. gemmipara , 2008 .

[7]  M. Richlen,et al.  A technique for the rapid extraction of microalgal DNA from single live and preserved cells. , 2005 .

[8]  G. FERNANDEZ-LEBORANS,et al.  Hydrozoan and protozoan epibionts on two decapod species, Liocarcinus depurator (Linnaeus, 1758) and Pilumnus hirtellus (Linnaeus, 1761), from Scotland , 2005 .

[9]  C. Sommerville,et al.  Marine protozoan epibionts on the copepod Lepeophtheirus salmonis, parasite of the Atlantic salmon , 2005 .

[10]  J. Thompson,et al.  CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. , 1994, Nucleic acids research.

[11]  M. Koehl.  How Do Benthic Organisms Withstand Moving Water , 1984 .

[12]  T. Sawyer,et al.  A report on Ephelota sp. (Ciliata, Suctorida) as an epibiont on the gills of decapod crustaceans , 1976 .

[13]  A. E. Noble.  Two new species of the Protozoan genus Ephelota from Monterey Bay, California , 1929 .