Costa Rican dictyostelids, with notes on the taxonomy, ­phylogeny and ecology of Dictyostelium discoideum

Landolt J. C., Cavender J. C., Stephenson S. L. & Romeralo M. (2013) Costa Rican dictyostelids, with notes on the taxonomy, phylogeny and ecology of Dictyostelium discoideum.

Sydowia 66 (1): 129–142

In 1962 and then over the period of 1993-2001, samples of soil/litter for isolation of cellular slime molds (dictyostelids) were collected throughout Costa Rica. Collecting sites included examples of all major forest types found in the country and ranged in elevation from 10 to 3000 m. More than 3300 clones of dictyostelids were recovered from these samples. The clones included representatives of at least 24 described species along a number of isolates that do not conform closely to any known species and thus may be new to science. Greatest diversity was found in the montane/cloud forests, whereas the average number of clones per gram was highest in moist/wet forests. Distribution of species on a country-wide basis is compared with that of Mexico, another tropical country. In addition, phylogenetic analyses of 18S rDNA sequences were carried out on 12 different isolates of Dictyostelium discoideum, a predominantly temperate species that was recorded from both Costa Rica and Mexico.

Keywords: biogeography, distribution, ecology, Neotropics, soils.

open access at Verlag Berger