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New tardigrade species Macrobiotus shonaicus sp. nov. identified in Japan

Researchers characterize new species using microscopy, genetic analysis

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PLOS

New Tardigrade Species <i>Macrobiotus shonaicus Sp. Nov.</i> Identified in Japan

image: A new tardigrade species has been identified in Japan, according to a study published February 28, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daniel Stec from the Jagiellonian University, Poland, and colleagues. view more 

Credit: Stec et al (2018)

A new tardigrade species has been identified in Japan, according to a study published February 28, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daniel Stec from the Jagiellonian University, Poland, and colleagues.

Tardigrades are microscopic metazoans that are found all over the world, and there were 167 known species from Japan. For decades, the globally distributed Macrobiotus hufelandi complex has been represented only by the nominal taxon M. hufelandi, but currently numerous species within the complex are recognised.

In this study, Stec and colleagues describe a new tardigrade species of the hufelandi group, Macrobiotus shonaicus sp. nov., from East Asia. The researchers collected a sample of moss from a car park in Japan and examined it for tardigrades, extracting 10 individuals from the sample, which were used to start a laboratory culture to obtain more individuals required for the range of analyses. They then used phase contrast light microscopy (PCM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well as analyzed the DNA for four molecular markers to characterize the new species and determine where it fit in the phylogenetic tree.

To distinguish between different tardigrade species, the researchers paid special attention to their eggs. This new tardigrade species has a solid egg surface, placing it in the persimilis subgroup within the hufelandi complex. The eggs also have flexible filaments attached, resembling those of two other recently described species, Macrobiotus paulinae from Africa and Macrobiotus polypiformis from South America.

The researchers' phylogenetic and morphological analysis identifies M. shonaicus sp. nov. as a new species within the M. hufelandi complex, increasing the number of known tardigrade species from Japan to 168.

Co-author Kazuharu Arakawa says: "We revisit the large and long-standing Macrobiotus hufelandi group of tardigrades, originally described by Schultze in 1834 and where M. shonaicus also belongs, and suggest that the group contains two clades with different egg morphology."

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0192210

Citation: Stec D, Arakawa K, Michalczyk ? (2018) An integrative description of Macrobiotus shonaicus sp. nov. (Tardigrada: Macrobiotidae) from Japan with notes on its phylogenetic position within the hufelandi group. PLoS ONE 13(2): e0192210. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192210

Funding: This work was supported by the Sonata Bis programme of the Polish National Science Centre (grant no. 2016/22/E/NZ8/00417 to ?M): study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish and preparation of the manuscript; KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (grant no. 17H03620 to KA): data collection; Yamagata Prefectural Government and Tsuruoka City, Japan (to KA): data collection.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.


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