First record of two ectoparasitic ciliates of the genus Trichodina (Ciliophora: Trichodinidae) parasitizing gills of an invasive freshwater fish, Micropercops swinhonis, in Tibet

Although high diversity of parasitic ciliates has been reported in China, little is known about the species from high altitude areas, especially in Tibet. To investigate the species of parasitic ciliates in Tibet, a project was initiated in the Chabalang wetland in 2013. Two Trichodina species, namely, Trichodina sp. and T. reticulata Hirschmann & Partsch, 1955, were isolated from gills of an invasive fish, Micropercops swinhonis for the first time. In the present study, we provided the morphological, morphometrical, and molecular characterizations of the two species and conducted the phylogenetic analyses of mobilids based on the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rDNA) sequences. Both morphological characters and morphometric data of the T. reticulata agreed well with previous studies. Although two partial SSU rDNA sequences were obtained in the present study, only the sequence of T. reticulata population in the present study was thought to be reliable. The other sequence may not belong to the other species. Thus, we regarded the other species isolated in the present study as Trichodina sp. to avoid the wrong or confused species identification. Morphologically, Trichodina sp. is distinguished mainly by its large body shape with a broad adhesive disk, robust and obliquely quadrilateral blades, and well-developed rays. T. reticulata is mainly characterized with the 8–12 spherical or elliptical granules in the central zone of adhesive disk. Phylogenetic analyses consistently showed the two ectoparasites clustered with freshwater species of the genus Trichodina within the order Mobilida. Our study extended the host range of T. reticulata and supplemented the molecular data. Also, results reveal that invasion of exotic fish may cause a potential threat to native fish by introducing or dispersing parasitic ciliates.