Bakuella granulifera Foissner 2002
Creators: name: Chae, Kyu-Seok
name: Min, Kang-San Kim and Gi-Sik
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Chromista
Ciliophora
Hypotrichea
Urostylida
Bakuellidae
Bakuella
Bakuella granulifera

description: 2. Bakuella granulifera Foissner et al., 2002 (Figs. 3, 4)   
 Bakuella granulifera Foissner et al., 2002: p. 561, figs.   
 129a- k, 380a- c, f- h, table. 111; Berger, 2006: p. 569. Korean name. 과립바쿠하모충   
 Diagnosis of the Korean population. Size in vivo about 160 × 55 μm, elongate and ellipsoidal body shape; 109- 180 macronuclear nodules; contractile vacuole at left of mid­body; 36-50 adoral membranelles; cortical granules present; three frontal cirri; 2-3 frontoterminal cirri; 5-11 buccal cirrus; 9-19 midventral pairs; 2-5 midventral rows; 8-12 transverse cirri; 39-67 left and 42-71 right marginal cirri; three dorsal kineties.   
 Description. Body size of specimens in vivo 140- 200 × 50-80 μm, 130-185 × 40-65 μm after protargol impregnation (Table 1). Body shape elongated elliptical, both ends of cell rounded and cortex flexible (Figs. 3C, 3D, 4E, 4F). Contractile vacuole on the left side of mid body, about 14 μm in diameter (Figs. 2A, 4B, arrow). On average 145 macronuclear nodules scattered irregularly, size in about 5-7 × 3-4 μm after protargol preparations (Figs. 3D, 4E, 4F). Yellow cortical granules arranged in short series (Figs. 3B, 4D, arrow), cytoplasm colorless (Fig. 4C, 4D).   
 Adoral zone of membranelles conspicuous, about 41% of the body length, and composed of 36-50 membranelles (Fig. 3A, 3C). Both paroral and endoral membranes curved leftward anteriorly (Fig. 3C). Three enlarged frontal cirri about 25 μm long in vivo (Fig. 3A, 3C); 2-3 frontoterminal cirri about 13 μm long in vivo located near distal end of adoral zone (Fig. 3A, 3C). Buccal cirral row composed of 5-11 cirri about 12 μm long in vivo (Fig. 3A, 3C). Midventral complex composed of 9-19 midventral pairs and 2-5 midventral rows (Figs. 3C, 4G, arrows). 8-12 transverse cirri at posterior end of rightmost midventral row (Fig. 3C). One left marginal row and one right marginal row composed of 39-67 and 42-71 cirri, respectively (Fig. 3C). Three dorsal kineties arranged on the dorsal side of the specimens (Figs. 3D, 4H, 4I, arrows). Caudal cirri lacking (Fig. 3D).   
 Distribution. Austria, China, Namibia, and South Korea (This study).   
 Remarks. A total of 12 species belongs to the genus Bakuella (Agamaliev and Alekperov, 1976; Borror and Wicklow, 1983; Mihailowitsch and Wilbert, 1990; Eigner and Foissner, 1992; Song et al., 1992; Foissner et al., 2002; Foissner, 2004; Chen et al., 2013; Jo et al., 2015). Of these, B. pampinaria pampinaria Eigner & Foissner, 1992 and B. edaphoni Song, Wilbert & Berger, 1992 are most similar to B. granulifera based on their multiple buccal cirri, multiple midventral rows, and three dorsal kineties (Eigner and Foissner, 1992; Song et al., 1992).   
 Considering the body shape, midventral row and yellowish cortical granules, B. granulifera is the most similar to B. pampinaria pampinaria Eigner & Foissner, 1992. However, the former differs from the latter in the number of buccal cirri (5-11 vs. 3-6), frontoterminal cirri (2-3 vs. 5-8), and transverse cirri (8-12 vs. 2-5) (Eigner and Foissner, 1992). Bakuella granulifera differs from B. edaphoni Song, Wilbert & Berger, 1992 in the number of midventral cirri rows (2-5 vs. 5-10) (Song et al., 1992).   
 The morphology of the Korean population corresponds to the type population from Namibia, but the former population differs from the type population in body size (128-185 × 40-65 μm vs. 274-396 × 77-144 μm) and the number of cirri of rearmost midventral row (6-9 vs. 9-14) (Foissner et al., 2002). The Korean population morphology corresponds to the Chinese population, but the former population differ in number of cirri of rearmost midventral row (6-9 vs. 8-18) (Chen et al., 2020b).   
 The bold letters indicate the differences between the population of Bakuella granulifera.   
 The 18S rRNA gene sequence of B. granulifera was 1749 bp in length (GenBank accession number: MT800 874). The closest species to B. granulifera in the genus Bakuella based on the pairwise distance of the 18S rRNA sequences is B. incheonensis. The intraspecific variation of B. granulifera was 0.001 -0.004 and the pairwise distance between B. granulifera and B. incheonensis was 0.026 (Table 3).   
 As mentioned above, the Korean population can be distinguished from the type population in terms of body size and the number of cirri of rearmost midventral row. These differences can be discussed at the subspecies level rather than the same species. However, unfortunately, the 18S rRNA gene sequences of the type population has not been reported. In addition, the Chinese population lacks morphological information. Thus, in order to clarify, information of the morphology and gene sequences of other populations of B. granulifera is needed.   
 Deposition. The voucher slide with protargol­impregnated specimens is deposited in the National Institute of Biological Resources in Korea (NIBRPR0000110228).
description: Published as part of Chae, Kyu-Seok & Min, Kang-San Kim and Gi-Sik, 2021, Redescription of two soil ciliates, Anteholosticha bergeri and Bakuella granulifera, from South Korea, pp. 63-71 in Journal of Species Research 10 (1) on pages 67-69, DOI: 10.12651/JSR.2021.10.1.063, http://zenodo.org/record/13140394