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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2009, p. 3187-3195, Vol. 75, No. 10
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00178-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

High-Level Genetic Diversity but No Population Structure Inferred from Nuclear and Mitochondrial Markers of the Peritrichous Ciliate Carchesium polypinum in the Grand River Basin (North America){triangledown} ,{dagger}

E. Gentekaki* and D. H. Lynn

Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Received 26 January 2009/ Accepted 17 March 2009

Studies that assess intraspecific genetic variation in ciliates are few and quite recent. Consequently, knowledge of the subject and understanding of the processes that underlie it are limited. We sought to assess the degree of intraspecific genetic variation in Carchesium polypinum (Ciliophora: Peritrichia), a cosmopolitan, freshwater ciliate. We isolated colonies of C. polypinum from locations in the Grand River basin in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. We then used the nuclear markers—ITS1, ITS2, and the hypervariable regions of the large subunit rRNA—and an 819-bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene (cox-1) to investigate the intraspecific genetic variation of C. polypinum and the degree of resolution of the above-mentioned markers at the population level. We also sought to determine whether the organism demonstrated any population structure that mapped onto the geography of the region. Our study shows that there is a high degree of genetic diversity at the isolate level, revealed by the mitochondrial markers but not the nuclear markers. Furthermore, our results indicate that C. polypinum is likely not a single morphospecies as previously thought.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1. Phone: (519) 824-4120, ext. 58381. Fax: (519) 767-1656. E-mail: egenteka{at}uoguelph.ca

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 20 March 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2009, p. 3187-3195, Vol. 75, No. 10
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00178-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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