Vahlkampfia

Vahlkampfia

The genus Vahlkampfia have been reclassified on the basis of SSUrDNA sequence analysis (Brown & De Jonckheere, 1999). This group are freshwater and marine, were previously diagnosed as being limax amoebae of the family Vahlkampfiiid family that do not transform into flagellates. A large number of species have been described and included into this genus, but as Page (1983) has pointed out "The similarity amongst trophic amoebae of the genus makes it unlikely that all species are morphological distinguishable." Biochemical or genetic analysis such as SSUrDNA analysis is clearly necessary to establish the extent and relationships amongst the Vahlkampfia genus. Further reclassification seems inevitable amongst this and related genera. V. damariscottae and another un-named species marine Vahlkampfia were found to be common in sediments occurring in shallow sediments in shallow lagoons in the Southern Baltic (Garstecki & Arndt, 2000).

A connection between the genus Acrasis and the Heterolobosea has been suspected (Page, 1978) and indeed analysis of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase revealed similarity to Naegleria and Acrasis rosea (Roger et al, 1996).

Vahlkampfia at the Protist Information Server

Renamed Vahlkampfia

Former name	Present name	Reference
Vahlkampfia aberdonica	Tetramitus aberdonica	Brown & De Jonckheere 1999
V. damariscottae	Neovahlkampfia damariscottae
V. enterica	Tetramitus enterica
V. inortana	Vahlkampfia inortana
V. lobospinosa	Tetramitus lobospinosa
V. ustiano	Paravahlkampfia ustiano

Described species:-

V. anaerobica (Smirnov & Fenchel, 1996)

V. caledonica (Anderson et al, 1997)

V. calksinsi (Hogue 1914)

V. lobospinosa

Fizer & Wilhelm, 1978

V. dumnonica

Page, 1983

V. longicauda

V. trilaminata (Schmoller et al, 1982)

Available strains:-

V. damariscottae CCAP 1588/7 Page 1974 Marine, Estuary of Damariscotta River Maine

References

Anderson, O.R., Rogerson, A. & Hannah, F. (1997). "Three new limax amoebae isolated from marine surface sediments: Vahlkampfia caledonica N. Sp., Saccamoeba marina N. Sp., and Hartmannella vacuolata N.Sp." J.Euk.Microbiol. 44(1), 33-42.

Brown, S. and J. F. De Jonckheere (1999). "A reevaluation of the amoeba genus Vahlkampfia based on SSUrDNA sequences." Eur.J.Protistol. 35: 49-54.

Fizer, E.R. & Wilhelm, W.E. (1978). "Promitosis and rod occurance in the limax ameba Vahlkampfia lobospinosa. J.Protozool. 25(1): 34-38.

Garstecki, T. and Arndt, H. (2000)."Seasonal abundances and community structure of benthic Rhizopods in shallow lagoons of the Southern Baltic seas." Eur.J.Protozool. 36: 103-115.

Hogue, M.J. (1914). "Studies in the life history of an amoeba of the limax group Vahlkampfia calkinsi" Arch.Protistenk.35: 154-163.

Page, F.C. (1980). "A light- and electron-microscopical comparison of limax and flabellate marine amoebae belonging to four genera." Protistlogica 16(1): 57-78.

Page, F.C. (1978). "Acrasis rosea and the possible relationship between Acrasida and Schizopyrenida." Arch.Protistenk. 120: 169-181.

Page, F.C. (1983) "Marine gymnamoebae". Inst.Terr.Ecol. NERC.

Page, F.C. (1988). "A new key to freshwater and soil gymnamoebae." Inst.Terr.Ecol. CCAP.

Roger, A.J., Smith, M.W., Doolittle, R.F. & Doolittle, W.F. (1996). "Evidence for the Heterolobosea from phylogenetic analysis of genes encoding glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase." J.Euk.Microbiol. 43(6): 475-485.

Schmoller, V.H., Jonas, L. & Ludvik, J. (1982). "Electron microscopical studies on encystment of Vahlkampfia trilaminata n.sp." Arch. Protistenk. 126, 427-444.

Smirnov, A.V. & Fenchel, T. (1996). "Vahlkampfia anaerobica n.sp. and Vannella peregrina n.sp. (Rhizopoda) - anaerobic amoebae from a marine sediment." Arch.Protistenkd. 147, 189-198.