Angulamoeba

Van Wichelen, Jeroen, D’Hondt, Sofie, Claeys, Myriam, Vyverman, Wim, Berney, Cédric, Bass, David & Vanormelingen, Pieter, 2016, A Hotspot of Amoebae Diversity: 8 New Naked Amoebae Associated with the Planktonic Bloom-forming Cyanobacterium Microcystis, Acta Protozoologica 55 (2), pp. 61-87 : 76

Angulamoeba

In the Angulamoeba ML phylogeny ( Fig. 8A), the additional reticulate strains (A4 WVB, A7 WVB) and sequences (A1 WVB, A2 WVB) were situated in the same lineage as the already published Angulamoeba microcystivorans sequences ( Van Wichelen et al. 2010, Berney et al. 2015). A. microcystivorans sequences differed by 0.0–0.3% (0–3 bp) from each other. The nearest other sequence, obtained from a natural sample, differed by 6.6–7.5% (65–111 bp) from A. microcystivorans .

The trophozoites of all our strains were elongated, deeply inclined, sometimes seemingly connected with filopodia, and became aggregated into a plasmodiumlike mucilage matrix at high population densities. They had an amoeboflagellate (1–3 flagella) and a cyst stage ( Fig. 8B) and fed voraciously on Microcystis , resulting in the clearance of Microcystis cultures in a matter of days.

The morphology and 18S rDNA sequence of our strains were similar to our previously studied strain A1 WVB isolated from the same bloom sample and newly described as Angulamoeba microcystivorans ( Berney et al. 2015) . We thus concluded they belonged to this species as well.