The living morphology and infraciliature of six spirotrichous ciliates collected from the coastal South China Sea were investigated using live observation and protargol impregnation. These are Euplotes woodruffi Gaw, 1939, Hemigastrostyla enigmatica (Dragesco and Dragesco-Kernéis, 1986) Song and Wilbert, 1997, Neourostylopsis flavicana (Wang et al., 2011) Chen et al., 2013, Protogastrostyla pulchra (Perejaslawzewa, 1886) Gong et al., 2007, Pseudoamphisiella alveolata (Kahl, 1932) Song and Warren, 2000, and Pseudokahliella marina (Foissner et al., 1982) Berger et al., 1985. Among these, Protogastrostyla pulchra, Pseudoamphisiella alveolata and Pseudokahliella marina are reported from the South China Sea for the first time, which manifest obvious differences apart from other Chinese populations. As new contribution, the detailed description of isolates from mangrove habitat of E. woodruffi and H. enigmatica, and aquaculture pond isolate of N. flavicana, are present.

Ciliates play a curial role in energy transfer from pico-and nano-phytoplankton to mesozooplankton in marine ecosystems. In order to visualize their geographical distributions from the Java Sea to the South China Sea (6°S to 20°N), the authors investigated the ciliate abundance and species composition in surface waters during May 18 to 27 of 2010. The ciliate abundance decreased latitudinally from 3 080 ind./L (~6°S) to 40 ind./L (~3°N), and then increased to 1 180 ind./L (~16°N) at the end of the survey. A total of 22 ciliates belonging to 15 genera were identified with the tintinnids accounted for 50% (11 species); and the species number showed a same spatial change as the ciliate abundance. Moreover, the Strombidium occupied over 50% of total ciliate abundance in most stations and Mesodinium and Tintinnopsis contributed to about 18.7% and 11.4%, respectively. In particular, our results indicate that the geographical changes in ciliate abundance were positively regulated by larger nano-and micro-phytoplankton biomass, rather than smaller pico-phytoplankton in the investigated waters.

Seasonal variation of marine plankton spatial distribution is important in understanding the biological processes in the ocean. In this study, we studied spatial distribution of planktonic ciliate abundance and biomass in the central deep area (station depth greater than 60 m) and the coastal shallow area (station depth less than 60 m) of the southern Yellow Sea (32°–36.5°N, 121°–125°E) in spring (April) and autumn (October–November) of 2006. Our results showed that both ciliate abundance and biomass in the surface waters were higher in spring ((1 490±2 336) ind./L; (4.11±7.81) μg/L) than in autumn ((972±823) ind./L; (1.11±1.18) μg/L, calculated by carbon). Ciliate abundance and biomass in the surface waters of the coastal shallow area were similar in spring and autumn. However, in the central deep area, those values were much higher in spring ((1 878±2 893) ind./L; (5.99±10.10) μg/L) than in autumn ((738±373) ind./L; (0.74±0.76) μg/L). High values of ciliate abundance and biomass occurred in the central deep area in spring and in the coastal shallow area in autumn. Mixotrophic ciliate Laboea strobila was abundant in the central deep area in spring, when a phytoplankton bloom occurred. However, in autumn, L. strobila was abundant in the coastal shallow area. Boreal tintinnid Ptychocyli obtusa was found in spring. Both L. strobila and P. obtusa were concentrated in the surface waters when their abundance was more than 1 000 ind./L. Peaks of these species were in the subsurface waters when their abundance was less than 400 ind./L. This study showed that both high abundance and biomass of ciliates occurred in different areas in southern Yellow Sea seasonally.

This study explored the molecular diversity and biogeography of benthic ciliates in Chinese marginal seas, the Bohai Sea (BHS), North Yellow Sea (NYS) and South Yellow Sea (SYS). From a previous 18S rRNA gene pyrosequencing dataset of the benthic microeukaryotes, we retrieved the sequences affiliated with phylum Ciliophora and analyzed alpha and beta diversities of ciliate communities. We found that BHS had the highest ciliate operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness than NYS and SYS, whereas the richness was not significantly different between summer and winter. Among all the measured environmental variables, water depth showed consistently the strongest correlations with alpha diversities. Overall, the class Spirotrichea (mostly Choreotrichia and unassigned lineages within the class) dominated the communities in terms of both relative proportion of sequences (77.0%) and OTU richness (66.5%). OTU-level ciliate community structure was significant different among the three basins, but not between the seasons. Structurally, significant differences in relative proportion among the basins were detected for the class Litostomatea, but not for other classes. Partial Mantel tests demonstrated that water depth difference was more important than geographic and environment distances in shaping the community structure of benthic ciliates in the studied area. About 60% OTUs were not assigned at a class or order level and at least 45% OTUs shared a sequence similarity no more than 97% with the described species, indicating a great potential for ciliate species discovery in the offshore sediments. Compared with previous morphology-based surveys, the spatial pattern of ciliate diversity (decreasing from NYS to SYS) is also identified in the present study. Nevertheless, structurally, the dominant class appeared to be Spirotrichea in the sequencing dataset, which differs from previous morphology-based results (dominance of classes Prostomatea and Karyorelictea in biomass). The potential causes for the discrepancies between molecular and morphological findings are also discussed.

The scuticociliatid ciliates Ancistrum haliotis and A. crassum are parasites that may cause high mortality in the cultured abalone Haliotis spp. and the bivalve Ruditapes philippinarum. Traditional identification with silver staining methods is hampered by their morphological similarities to closely related species and the complicated procedures of morphological analysis. We designed two SSU rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes labeled with a fluorochrome, and optimized the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) protocols for identification of A. halioti and A. crassum, respectively. The assays resulted in a clear identification by strong fluorescence signals from the oligonucleotide probes. The method can be used for quick and accurate quantitative analysis of A. haliotis and A. crassum infections on host molluscs.

In order to clarify the phylogeny and relationships of the most confused hypotrichous ciliates, Holosticha-complex, four closely related holostichids (five populations), Holosticha bradburyae, H. diademata, Anteholosticha sp., and A. manca, were compared and analyzed using ITS2 secondary structures, ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region and SSrRNA gene sequences. The ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region sequences of these four species were first sequenced, and they shared sequence identities ranging from 68.0% to 90.1%, while two populations of Anteholosticha sp. differed in three nucleotides (sequence identity 99.8%). There were several minor differences among ITS2 secondary structures of these species, while two populations of Anteholosticha sp. had the identical secondary structure. Phylogenetic trees inferred from the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region sequences of stichotrichs using multiple algorithms (Neighbor-Joining, Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian) revealed similar topologies. The results show that:(1) Holosticha bradburyae and H. diademata firmly clustered together with strong bootstrap supports, forming a sister clade with Anteholosticha sp., (2) Anteholosticha appeared to be a paraphyletic assemblage, in which the morphotype A. manca was more closely related to Diaxonella trimarginata than to its congener Anteholosticha sp. Phylogenetic analyses based on the SSrRNA gene and the combined sequences of SSrRNA gene and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region revealed the similar relationships between Holosticha and Anteholosticha, nevertheless their positions within the subclass Stichotrichia differed from each other inferred from different genes.

Epipont peritrich ciliates are one of the most sessilie protists that attached to the substrate of zooplankton communities especially copepods and crustaceans. Peritrich ciliates can be solitary or colonial form found from the coastal zones and embayment around the world. Present research report is the first snapshot study of the peritrich ciliates and the horizontal distribution in open waters from surface to 200 m depth in the eastern Indian Ocean. Recently, five peritrich ciliates, e.g., Vorticella oceanica, Zoothamnium alternans, Z. alrasheidi, Z. pelagicum, and Z. marinum were collected from plankton net tow samples during the cruise from April 10 to May 13, 2014. The characteristics of the peritrich ciliate were determined according to the shape of the zooids, the ciliary structure and the stalks. The morphometric shape, sizes and characters also explained by examination under light/scanning electron microscopy. Vorticella oceanica and Z. pelagicum showed their association with host such as diatom (i.e, Chaetoceros coarctatus) and copepod (Oithona brevicornis) including some individuals around the dinoflagellate species (Ceraitum tripose). The distribution of these sessilid ciliates was dominated by the V. oceanica, Z. pelagicum and Z. marinum at the southeast zone while the large colonies of Z. alrasheidi observed at the Bay of Bengal. This distribution can be influenced by substrate availability like diatom (Ch. coarctatus) and copepods (O. brevicornis).

Ciliates are important components in planktonic food webs, but our understanding of their community structures in different oceanic water masses is limited. We report pelagic ciliate community characteristics in three seas: the tropical West Pacific, the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Planktonic ciliate abundance had “bimodal-peak”, “surface-peak” and “DCM (deep chlorophyll a maximum layer)-peak” vertical distribution patterns in the tropical West Pacific, the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, respectively. The abundance proportion of tintinnid to total ciliate in the Bering Sea (42.6%) was higher than both the tropical West Pacific (7.8%) and the Arctic Ocean (2.0%). The abundance proportion of small aloricate ciliates (10–20 μm size-fraction) in the tropical West Pacific was highest in these three seas. The Arctic Ocean had higher abundance proportion of tintinnids in larger LOD (lorica oral diameter) size-class. Proportion of redundant species increased from the Arctic Ocean to the tropical West Pacific. Our result provided useful data to further understand ecology roles of planktonic ciliates in different marine habitats.

The complete small subunit rRNA (SSrRNA) gene sequence of a marine ciliate,Dysteria derouxi Gong and Song,2004,was determined to be of 1 708 nucleotides.The phylogenetic position of this species within the class Phyllopharyngea was deduced using distance matrix,maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods.Dysteria derouxi,together with other available ciliates of the class Phyllopharyngea,forms a monophyletic clade with strong bootstrap support in the distance matrix,maximum parsimony and likelihood tree construction methods,while the dysterids are,as a monophyletic group,phylogenetically close to the clade of chlamydodontids[values of 100% LS(least-squares),100% NJ(neighbor-joining)].In addition,the trees indicate that dysteriids may be a higher or specialized group within the class,which corresponds well to the morphology and infraciliature.

The biomass and size fraction of phytoplankton in terms of chlorophyll a (Chl a) was measured during four cruises conducted in April, July, October 2013 and January 2014 in mariculture area, the Sanggou Bay, China. Results show that total Chl a levels in the surface seawater of the Sanggou Bay generally range from 0.10 to 20.46 μg/L, with an average value of 2.13 μg/L. Nano-phytoplankton was the most important size-fraction and accounted for about 65.1% of total Chl a. In order to evaluate the importance of the "protozoan trophic link" for energy transfer from the microbial loop to filter-feeding feeders, Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri was then offered a natural planktonic community as potential prey. Results show that scallops obtained carbon source from natural plankton with the rate of 11 033.05 μg/(g·d). Protists (nanoflagellates and ciliates) were the dominant source of carbon retained by scallop (48.78%). The microbial loop provided 58.45% of the carbon source for farmed scallops. These results indicate that the microbial loop represent a valuable trophic resource in mariculture system of the Sanggou Bay.