Korean J Parasitol.  2005 Mar;43(1):7-13. 10.3347/kjp.2005.43.1.7.

Evaluation of taxonomic validity of four species of Acanthamoeba: A. divionensis, A. paradivionensis, A. mauritaniensis, and A. rhysodes, inferred from molecular analyses

• Liu H
• Moon EK
• Yu HS
• Jeong HJ
• Hong YC
• Kong HH
• Chung DI

• KMID: 1720493
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3347/kjp.2005.43.1.7

Abstract

The taxonomy of Acanthamoeba spp., an amphizoic amoeba which causes granulomatous amoebic encephalitis and chronic amoebic keratitis, has been revised many times. The taxonomic validity of some species has yet to be assessed. In this paper, we analyzed the morphological characteristics, nuclear 18s rDNA and mitochondrial 16s rDNA sequences and the Mt DNA RFLP of the type strains of four Acanthamoeba species, which had been previously designated as A. divionensis, A. parasidionensis, A. mauritaniensis, and A. rhysodes. The four isolates revealed characteristic group II morphology. They exhibited 18S rDNA sequence differences of 0.2-1.1% with each other, but more than 2% difference from the other compared reference strains. Four isolates formed a different clade from that of A. castellanii Castellani and the other strains in morphological group II on the phylogenetic tree. In light of these results, A. paradivionensis, A. divionensis, and A. mauritaniensis should be regarded as synonyms for A. rhysodes.

Keyword

Acanthamoeba; taxonomy; 18s rDNA sequence analysis

MeSH Terms

Acanthamoeba/*classification/*genetics
Animals
DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics
DNA, Ribosomal/genetics
Phylogeny
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
RNA, Ribosomal, 18S/genetics