Ciliated microeukaryotes (Alveolata: Ciliophora) of a lotic urban system located in Minas Gerais - Brazil

Boas, J. A. VilasSenra, M. V. XFonseca, A. LDias, R. J. P

The phylum Ciliophora is organized in 14 classes with ~8,000 described species ( Gao et al., 2016 ). Among unicellular microeukaryotes, ciliates are the most specialized, diversified and with the highest complexity in terms of cellular organization ( Puytorac, 1994 ). They typically occupy basal trophic levels and display a wide geographical distribution occurring in almost all environments such as marine, fresh and brackish waters, and also in edaphic systems like soils, mosses and lichens ( Lynn, 2008 ). Their diversity in lotic systems have been extensively studied in the northern hemisphere because of their potential use as water quality bioindicators ( Wiackowski, 1981 ; Primc, 1988 ; Groliére et al., 1990; Madoni, 2005 ). However, scarce information is available in literature about their diversity in aquatic ecosystems in Brazil, even though its privileged hydrological condition. The access to ciliate diversity and biogeography is a challenge tasks because they are diminute organisms, difficult to identify ( Finlay and Fenchel, 1999 ), there is a lack of experienced specialists ( Foissner, 2006 ) and a number of species stay encysted for most of their life cycles ( Foissner, 2004 ). In Brazil, significant works were performed with this emphasis such as conducted in Rio Grande do Sul (Safi et al., 2014), Paraná ( Pauleto et al., 2009 ; Buosi et al., 2011 ; Velho et al., 2005 , 2013 ), São Paulo ( Bagantini et al., 2013 ; Regali-Seleghim et al., 2011 ), Pará ( Castro et al., 2014 ), Minas Gerais ( Dias et al., 2008 , 2010 ) and Rio de Janeiro ( Paiva and Silva-Neto, 2004a , b ) states. Inventory studies constitute the first step for development of applied biotechnological usage of ciliates. Regali-Seleghim et al. (2011) highlight the importance of more works surveying the diversity of ciliates in less studied regions of Brazil given their ecological importance. Moreover, establishment of in vitrocultures will contribute with information to biomonitoring programs ( Madoni and Romeo, 2006 ; Shi et al., 2012 ) and for better evaluation of the biotechnological potential of these organisms ( Mansano et al., 2016 ). This present work aimed to survey the diversity of the species of ciliated protists in a neotropical lotic urban system located in Southern region of Minas Gerais state, Brazil.(AU)