Premium
ARDRA and RAPD‐fingerprinting reject the sibling species concept for the ciliate Paramecium caudatum (Ciliophora, Protoctista)
Author(s) -
Stoeck Thorsten,
Welter Harald,
SeitzBender Dagmar,
Kusch Jürgen,
Schmidt Helmut J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
zoologica scripta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.204
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1463-6409
pISSN - 0300-3256
DOI - 10.1046/j.1463-6409.2000.00031.x
Subject(s) - paramecium caudatum , biology , ciliate , rapd , paramecium aurelia , paramecium , genetics , zoology , sibling species , macronucleus , restriction enzyme , evolutionary biology , dna , population , biochemistry , demography , sociology , genetic diversity
Morphologically indistinguishable sibling species also known as syngens are a characteristic taxonomic feature of the ciliate genus Paramecium . This has been convincingly demonstrated for the P. aurelia species complex. For a long time this feature has also been assumed for P. caudatum . Classical morphology based techniques of taxonomic analysis are often inefficient to study sibling specie. We therefore investigated 14 P. caudatum strains of seven supposedly different syngens using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)‐fingerprinting and amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analyses (ARDRA, Riboprinting). The RAPD patterns revealed by five different random primers were similar between the different strains of the same syngen (similarity index ranging from 73 to 91%) and also between strains of supposedly different syngens (similarity index ranging from 67 to 91%). The amplified 18S rRNA‐fragments of supposedly different syngens, as well as the restriction patterns of these fragments digested by five different endonucleases, were identical for all investigated P. caudatum stains. Consequently we reject the sibling species hypothesis for P. caudatum . According to our molecular analysis, P. caudatum is not a species complex, but just one single species.