Characterization of Allobodo yubaba sp. nov. and Novijibodo darinka gen. et sp. nov., cultivable free-living species of the phylogenetically enigmatic kinetoplastid taxon Allobodonidae.

ABSTRACT: Kinetoplastids are a large and diverse protist group, spanning ecologically important free-living forms to medically important parasites. The taxon Allobodonidae holds an unresolved position within kinetoplastids, and the sole described species, Allobodo chlorophagus, is uncultivated, being a necrotroph/parasite of macroalgae. Here we describe Allobodo yubaba sp. nov. and Novijibodo darinka gen. nov. et sp. nov., both free-living bacterivores isolated into monoeukaryotic cultures. Electron microscopy shows that both A. yubaba and N. darinka have a microtubular prism in the feeding apparatus (absent in A. chlorophagus), and an ovoid eukinetoplast, rather than pan-kDNA as in A. chlorophagus. Phylogenetic analyses of SSU rDNA sequences robustly place A. yubaba as the sister to A. chlorophagus

SUBMITTER: Packer JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11771631 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature