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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 4063

Sally Lyman Allen, Julian Adams, and Caroline L. Rushford; Interspecies Relationships in the Paramecium aurelia Complex: Acid Phosphatase Variation. J.Protozool. 30(1):143-147, 1983

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Up to five zones of acid phosphatase activity appear in gels after electrophoresis of detergent-treated extracts from 13 of the 14 species of the Paramecium aurelia complex. The overall pattern is somewhat similar for all species; differences in intensity and mobility of individual zones permit the grouping of these sibling species into eight groups. All 14 species can be identified using the procedure of enzyme eletrophoresis, although two of them are more similar than is usually the case. Problems of misclassification are discussed in terms of the nature and frequency of variants. With the judicious choice of enzymes used to screen new stocks, these problems can be circum vented. Species relationships are updated using 11 enzymes. A dendrogram constructed from the matrix of genetic distances shows four clusters of species: (i) P. biaurelia, P. triaurelia; (ii) P. primaurelia, P. pentaurelia, P. sexaurelia, P. novaurelia; (iii) P. septaurelia, P. undecaurelia, P. tredecaurelia, P. quadecaurelia; and (iv) P. tetraurelia, P. octaurelia, P. decaurelia, P. dodecaurelia. Distances between the species are large, on the other of differences between Drosophila species. The species are characterized by an extraordinary lack of geographical differentiation and great morphological similarity, which contrasts strongly with the molecular differentiation.