Phylogenetic position of the marine ciliate, Certesia quadrinucleata (Ciliophora; Hypotrichia; Hypotrichida) inferred from the complete small subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequence

The complete small subunit rRNA (SSrRNA) gene sequence of the rare marine hypotrich, Certesia quadrinucleata Fabre-Domergue, 1885, was determined, and found to be 1752 nucleotides long. The phylogenetic position of this species was deduced using distance matrix, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. Certesia was consistently demonstrated to be a member of the Aspidisca–Euplotes group and clearly exhibits a very close relationship to the well-known genus Euplotes (99% Bay, 99% LS, 99% NJ, 99% MP). The phylogenetic trees further suggest that: (1) Uronychia and Diophrys, traditionally placed in the family Uronychiidae, branch earlier and share a closer relationship to each other than to other hypotrichs; (2) taxa in Gastrocirrhidae, represented by Euplotidium arenarium, might be an “ancestral” group among “traditional” hypotrichs.