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Morphological and genetic analysis of three new species of Ceratomyxa Thélohan, 1892 (Myxozoa: Myxosporea) from carcharhinid sharks off Australia

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Abstract

Three new species of Ceratomyxa Thélohan, 1892 are described from the gall-bladders of two species of carcharhinid sharks collected off Heron and Lizard Islands on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Ceratomyxa carcharhini n. sp. and C. melanopteri n. sp. are described from Carcharhinus melanopterus (Quoy & Gaimard), and Ceratomyxa negaprioni n. sp. is described from Negaprion acutidens (Rüppell). These species are the first ceratomyxids reported from Australian elasmobranchs, and this is the first paper to formally characterise a novel Ceratomyxa species from an elasmobranch using both morphology and small subunit ribosomal DNA sequence data. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses of the SSU rDNA dataset revealed that ceratomyxids from elasmobranchs form a sister clade to that of species infecting marine teleosts and Palliatus indecorus Schulman, Kovaleva & Dubina, 1979. Furthermore, the only sequenced freshwater ceratomyxid, Ceratomyxa shasta Noble, 1950, fell outside the overall marine ceratomyxid clade. These data show that Ceratomyxa, as currently recognised, is polyphyletic and ignites discussion on whether Ceratomyxa should be split. However, further taxon sampling, particularly in freshwater systems, is required to establish relevant biological divisions within the genus.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Mieke Burger, Holly Heiniger and Dr Nicole Gunter, who assisted in field collections; Dr Jessica Worthington Wilmer of the Molecular Identities Laboratory, Queensland Museum, for assistance with molecular techniques; and the staff at the Heron Island and Lizard Island Research Stations. This paper is a contribution from the CReefs Australia Project, generously sponsored by BHP Billiton in partnership with the Australian Biological Resources Study, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. CReefs is a field programme of the Census of Marine Life.

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Correspondence to Robert Adlard.

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Gleeson, R., Adlard, R. Morphological and genetic analysis of three new species of Ceratomyxa Thélohan, 1892 (Myxozoa: Myxosporea) from carcharhinid sharks off Australia. Syst Parasitol 80, 117–124 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-011-9316-9

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