Entamoeba marina n. sp.; a New Species of Entamoeba Isolated from Tidal Flat Sediment of Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan

The genus Entamoeba includes anaerobic lobose amoebae, most of which are parasites of various vertebrates and invertebrates. We report a new Entamoeba species, E . marina n. sp. that was isolated from a sample of tidal flat sediment collected at Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan. Trophozoites of E .  marina were 12.8–32.1 μm in length and 6.8–15.9 μm in width, whereas the cysts were 8.9–15.8 μm in diam. and contained four nuclei. The E . marina cells contained a rounded nucleus with a small centric karyosome and uniformly arranged peripheral chromatin. Although E . marina is morphologically indistinguishable from other tetranucleated cyst‐forming Entamoeba species, E . marina can be distinguished from them based on the combination of molecular phylogenetic analyses using SSU rDNA gene and the difference of collection sites. Therefore, we propose E . marina as a new species of the genus Entamoeba .