Bibliographic Detail
Reñé, A., Camp, J. & Garcés, E., 2014
Reference:
Reñé, A., Camp, J. & Garcés, E. (2014). Polykrikos tanit sp. nov., a new mixotrophic unarmoured pseudocolonial dinoflagellate from the NW Mediterranean Sea. Protist 165: 81-92, 5 figs.
Abstract:
Pigmented pseudocolonies initially identified as Polykrikos hartmannii Zimmermann were detected at
several locations of the Catalan coast (NW Mediterranean Sea) in AprilJune of 2012 and AprilMay of
2013. To further explore the several remarkable morphological discrepancies between these organisms
and P. hartmannii, we carried out a detailed morphological study and used single-cell PCR to obtain par-
tial LSU and SSU rDNA sequences. The resulting phylogenies showed that our isolates occupy a basal
position within the Polykrikos clade, close to P. hartmannii, but do not correspond to any described
polykrikoid species. P. barnegatensis Martin is controversially considered to be synonymous with P.
hartmannii. The organisms studied in this work were similar to P. barnegatensis but showed significant
morphological differences with its original description such as the torsion of the pseudocolony,
more pronounced overhanging of the cingula, stepped fusion border of the zooids, and number and
shape of nuclei. Consequently, we propose that the isolates constitute a new species, which we named
Polykrikos tanit sp. nov. The observed characters, pigmented, same number of zooids and nuclei, sulci
not fused, and its phylogeny suggest that the species is an early evolutionary Polykrikos species.
