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A fresh look at Dinodasys mirabilis (Gastrotricha, Macrodasyida), with focus on the reproductive apparatus and sperm ultrastructure

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Abstract

Adults of Dinodasys mirabilis were studied for the first time. The specimens, collected from the west coast of Sweden, were investigated alive and with electron microscopy. Sexually mature specimens attain a total length of 450–490 μm; the adhesive apparatus is made up of anterior, lateral, ventrolateral, dorsal and posterior tubes; and one pair of “cirrata” type tubes is also present. The reproductive apparatus is hermaphroditic, paired testes extend rearward from the pharyngeo-intestinal junction to 3/4 of the trunk, and sperm ducts bend anteriorly at U52 and join together into a common, mid-ventral pore at U33. Two ovaries lie along the sides of the caudal intestine, extending anteriorly from U68. Frontal organ present on the right side of the body centered a U70; caudal organ was absent; a gland organ surrounding the terminal intestine may be present, but its homology with other organs in a similar position is uncertain. The spermatozoon is a filiform cell, formed by a long acrosome, a spring-like nucleus and a flagellum. The acrosome is divided into two regions: the anterior-most is thin and corkscrew-shaped, and the posterior one is rectilinear; both regions are delimited by a continuous external layer of thick, dense material, which in longitudinal section appears obliquely striated and surrounds a long pile of stout, electron-dense cylinders; the nucleus contains condensed chromatin and is coiled around an elongate mitochondrion; the flagellum possesses a 9 × 2 + 2 axoneme devoid of striated cylinder. Within Macrodasyida, U-bend sperm ducts and the peculiar ultrastructure of the acrosome are characteristics shared by other Turbanellidae studied so far, providing a foundation for the current systematization of Dinodasys.

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Acknowledgments

The senior author is thankful to the organizing committee of the meiofauna workshop at the Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences at Tjärno (Sweden), during which D. mirabilis was collected. The research benefitted from a M.I.U.R. grant to MAT (PRIN-2007—Approccio integrato all’identificazione dei Gastrotrichi marini), a PRIN 2007—“Sistematica e strategie riproduttive in alcuni gruppi di invertebrati”—to MB, LG, and MF, and a Scientific Research funds to MB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via Campi 213/d, 41125, Modena, Italy

    M. Antonio Todaro

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze della terra, della Vita e dell’Ambiente (DiSTeVA), Università di Urbino (Carlo Bo), Loc. Crocicchia, 61029, Urbino, Italy

    Loretta Guidi & Maria Balsamo

  3. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 26, 20133, Milano, Italy

    Marco Ferraguti

Authors
  1. M. Antonio Todaro
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  2. Loretta Guidi
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  3. Marco Ferraguti
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  4. Maria Balsamo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Antonio Todaro.

Additional information

Communicated by T. Bartolomaeus.

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435_2012_147_MOESM1_ESM.eps

Dinodasys mirabilis, trunk and posterior end region at different focal plane, showing A, the short caudal cone (arrow), and B, the gland organ. DIC optics. Supplementary material 1 (EPS 10980 kb)

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Todaro, M.A., Guidi, L., Ferraguti, M. et al. A fresh look at Dinodasys mirabilis (Gastrotricha, Macrodasyida), with focus on the reproductive apparatus and sperm ultrastructure. Zoomorphology 131, 115–125 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-012-0147-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-012-0147-2

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