University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia.
J Eukaryot Microbiol. 2022 Sep;69(5):e12886. doi: 10.1111/jeu.12886. Epub 2022 Jan 26.
The diversity of prokaryotic symbionts in Ciliophora and other protists is fascinatingly rich; they may even include some potentially pathogenic bacteria. In this review, we summarize currently available data on biodiversity and some morphological and biological peculiarities of prokaryotic symbionts mainly within the genera Paramecium and Euplotes. Another direction of ciliate symbiology, neglected for a long time and now re-discovered, is the study of epibionts of ciliates. This promises a variety of interesting outcomes. Last, but not least, we stress the new technologies, such as next generation sequencing and the use of genomics data, which all can clarify many new aspects of relevance. For this reason, a brief overview of achievements in genomic studies on ciliate's symbionts is provided. Summing up the results of numerous scientific contributions, we systematically update current knowledge and outline the prospects as to how symbiology of Ciliophora may develop in the near future.
纤毛虫和其他原生动物中的原核共生体的多样性令人着迷；它们甚至可能包括一些潜在的致病细菌。在这篇综述中，我们总结了目前关于原核共生体生物多样性的可用数据，以及主要在草履虫属和游仆虫属中观察到的一些形态学和生物学特征。纤毛动物共生生物学的另一个方向，长期以来被忽视，现在又被重新发现，那就是纤毛虫的外共生体的研究。这有望带来各种有趣的结果。最后但同样重要的是，我们强调了新技术，如下一代测序和基因组学数据的应用，这些都可以阐明许多相关的新方面。因此，我们提供了一个关于纤毛虫共生体基因组研究成果的简要概述。通过总结大量科学研究成果，我们系统地更新了当前的知识，并概述了在不久的将来纤毛虫共生生物学可能如何发展的前景。
