<i>Paramecium</i> Diversity and a New Member of the <i>Paramecium aurelia</i> Species Complex Described from Mexico

Abstract

Paramecium (Ciliophora) is an ideal model organism to study the biogeography of protists. However, many regions of the world, such as Central America, are still neglected in understanding Paramecium diversity. We combined morphological and molecular approaches to identify paramecia isolated from more than 130 samples collected from different waterbodies in several states of Mexico. We found representatives of six Paramecium morphospecies, including the rare species Paramecium jenningsi, and Paramecium putrinum, which is the first report of this species in tropical regions. We also retrieved five species of the Paramecium aurelia complex, and describe one new member of the complex, Paramecium quindecaurelia n. sp., which appears to be a sister species of Paramecium biaurelia. We discuss criteria currently applied for differentiating between sibling species in Paramecium. Additionally, we detected diverse bacterial symbionts in some of the collected ciliates.

Keywords

• biogeography
• ciliates
• <i>Paramecium quindecaurelia</i>
• cytochrome C oxidase subunit I gene
• sibling species
• species concept in protists