• Animal cells and systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.251-258
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• 2011

Ciliates are considered one of the most diverse protozoa and play significant roles in ecology. For successful taxonomic study of these microscopic eukaryotes, a staining procedure is necessary, due mainly to intrinsic difficulties in recognizing characteristics from living cells. Although molecular taxonomy has been used to resolve the ambiguities associated with traditional morphology-based taxonomy, extraction of genomic DNA from stained ciliate cells is not available yet. In the present study, we describe a method to extract genomic DNA from a single protargol-impregnated euplotid cell. By using $HgCl_2$ as a fixative and modulating the exposure time of bleach solution in the protargol impregnation, high-quality genomic DNA can successfully be extracted from a stained single cell with minimal loss of morphological integrity. This technique will contribute to the effectiveness of combined approaches of molecular and morphological taxonomy from single ciliate cells.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2010

Two marine euplotid ciliates, i.e. Euplotes cristatus Kahl, 1932 and E. minuta Yocom, 1930, were collected from the public waterfront of Incheon on the Yellow Sea and from the Songjeong Beach, Busan, in the Strait of Korea, respectively. These two species were verified as unrecorded species in Korea. These species were described based on live observation, protargol impregnation, and silver nitrate impregnation. In addition, the small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) sequences of the two species were compared with previously known sequences of the Euplotes species. Euplotes cristatus has an elongated oval form, size in vivo of $60-84{\times}38-68\;{\mu}m$, 35-50 adoral zone of membranelles (AZM), 10 frontoventral cirri (FVC), 5 transverse cirri (TC), 4-5 caudal cirri (CC), 8 dorsal kineties (DK), 10-16 dorsal cilia of middle DK, and silverline system of single-vannus type. Euplotes minuta has a small ovoid form ($44-53{\times}26-35\;{\mu}m$ in vivo), 31-41 AZM, 10 FVC, 5 TC, 4 CC, 9 DK, 10-12 dorsal cilia of middle DK, and silverline system of single-vannus type.