Phylogeny and species delimitation of ciliates in the genus Spirostomum (class Heterotrichea) using single-cell transcriptomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ciliates are single-celled microbial eukaryotes that diverged from other eukaryotic lineages more than a billion years ago. The long evolutionary timespan of ciliates has led to enormous genetic and phenotypic changes, contributing significantly to their high level of diversity. Recent analyses based on molecular data have revealed numerous cases of cryptic species complexes in different ciliate lineages, demonstrating the need for a robust approach to delimit species boundaries and elucidate phylogenetic relationships. Species of the genus Spirostomum are difficult to identify due to the lack of distinctive morphological characters. Previous molecular studies have focused on only a few loci, namely the nuclear ribosomal RNA genes, alpha-tubulin, and mitochondrial CO1, s

SUBMITTER: Shazib SUA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11866625 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature