Division of Polar Earth-System Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, 26 Songdomirae-ro, Yeonsu-gu, 21990, Incheon, Korea.
Polar Science, University of Science & Technology, 217 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, 34113, Daejeon, Korea.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jun 4;10(1):9122. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-65573-1.
Tardigrades constitute one of the most important group in the challenging Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem. Living in various habitats, tardigrades play major roles as consumers and decomposers in the trophic networks of Antarctic terrestrial and freshwater environments; yet we still know little about their biodiversity. The Eutardigrada is a species rich class, for which the eggshell morphology is one of the key morphological characters. Tardigrade egg morphology shows a diverse appearance, and it is known that, despite rare, intraspecific variation is caused by seasonality, epigenetics, and external environmental conditions. Here we report Dactylobiotus ovimutans sp. nov. from King George Island, Antarctica. Interestingly, we observed a range of eggshell morphologies from the new species, although the population was cultured under controlled laboratory condition. Thus, seasonality, environmental conditions, and food source are eliminated, leaving an epigenetic factor as a main cause for variability in this case.
缓步动物是极具挑战性的南极陆地生态系统中最重要的生物类群之一。它们生活在各种栖息地中，作为南极陆地和淡水环境中营养网络的消费者和分解者发挥着重要作用；然而，我们对它们的生物多样性仍然知之甚少。Eutardigrada 是一个物种丰富的类群，其卵壳形态是其主要形态特征之一。缓步动物的卵形态表现出多样的外观，已知尽管罕见，但种内变异是由季节性、表观遗传学和外部环境条件引起的。本文报道了来自南极洲乔治王岛的新种 Dactylobiotus ovimutans。有趣的是，尽管该种群是在受控的实验室条件下培养的，但我们观察到了一系列来自新物种的卵壳形态。因此，季节性、环境条件和食物来源被排除在外，在这种情况下，表观遗传因素成为变异的主要原因。
