Haplomyxa saranae gen. nov. et sp. nov., a New Naked Freshwater Foraminifer

A new naked foraminifer, Haplomyxa saranae gen. nov. sp. nov., is described from an established cell line made from a single cell isolated from a freshwater garden pond. The new species was morphologically close to Reticulomyxa filosa, the only valid naked freshwater foraminifer species. However the two species differed when it came to the morphology of the cell body, the number of cysts, and the nutrition. The 18S rRNA gene had one of the longest sequences to date (4863 nucleotides), and it contained many insertions that are typical of Foraminifera. The size of this gene was 45% longer than the one of R. filosa due to the elongation of A+T rich regions, but molecular phylogeny based on conserved regions of the 3′-end placed the new species in the same morphological clade K. This report includes both morphological and genetic data which undoubtedly show that the new species is a new naked freshwater foraminifer and the second species of the clade K.