Species of the Parasitic Genus Duboscquella are Members of the Enigmatic Marine Alveolate Group I

Small subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequences of Duboscquella spp. infecting the tintinnid ciliate, Favella ehrenbergii, were determined. Two parasites were sampled from different localities. They are morphologically similar to each other and both resemble D. aspida. Nevertheless, two distinct sequences (7.6% divergence) were obtained from them. Phylogenetic trees inferred from maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony revealed that these two Duboscquella spp. sequences are enclosed in an environmental clade named Marine Alveolate Group I. This clade consists of a large number of picoplanktonic organisms known only from environmental samples from various parts of the ocean worldwide, and which therefore lack clear characterization and identification. Here, we provide morphological and genetic characterization of these two Duboscquella genotypes included in this enigmatic clade. Duboscquella spp. produce a large number of small flagellated spores as dispersal agents and the presence of such small cells partially explains why the organisms related to these parasites have been detected within environmental genetic libraries, built from picoplanktonic size fractions of environmental samples. The huge diversity of the Marine Alveolate Group I and the finding that parasites from different marine protists belong to this lineage suggest that parasitism is a widespread and ecologically relevant phenomenon in the marine environment.