Taxonomic studies on early-branching myzozoan protists

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26840133
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biodiversity/Systematics
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yabuki Akinori 国立研究開発法人海洋研究開発機構, 海洋生物多様性研究分野, 研究員 (20711104)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Kevin Wakeman 北海道大学, 国際本部, 助教 (70760221)
• Research Collaborator: Kusaka Chiho ; Tame Akihiro ; Jimi Naoto
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 系統分類 / 真核微生物 / 多様性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We successfully established 59 cultures of microbial eukaryotes in total and taxonomic studies have been conducted using these cultures. For instance, one culture was of Hemistasia phaeocysticola which was originally described as a member of Myzozoa. The phylogenetic analyses newly revealed that H. pheocysticola does not belong to Myzozoa, but to Euglenozoa. Hence, H. pheocysticola was taxonomically transferred into Euglenozoa in the published paper. By the further and continuous taxonomic studies using other cultures, the diversity of eukaryotic microbes will be understood more properly. When it was difficult or impossible to establish the cultures of the target protists, we conducted the taxonomic studies with the isolated cells. We also conducted the study to understand how complex structural mitochondrial genome and genes have been established by analyzing the established cultures during this period.

Free Research Field

進化原生生物学