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Two new species of dictyostelid cellular slime molds from Alaska

     ¹ Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, Norbyvagen 18D, Uppsala, SE-752 36, Sweden
² Department of Biology, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, 25443, United States of America
³ Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio Univ, Athens, OH, 45701, United States of America
⁴ University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
⁵ Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

In sampling soils to survey for dictyostelid cellular slime molds in Alaska we encountered two groups of isolates that have morphologies that differ from any previously described species within their group. We sequenced the nuclear small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rDNA) of selected isolates from the two groups and found sequences from both groups to be distinct from all previously described dictyostelid sequences. Phylogenetic analyses place one novel species in dictyostelid Group 2 (Heterostelids) and the other in Group 4 (Dictyostelids). In this paper, we formally describe these two species of cellular slime molds as new, Dictyostelium ammophilum sp. nov. and Dictyostelium boreale sp. nov., based on the combination of morphological and molecular characters.

Key words: Alaska, cellular slime molds, taxonomy, morphology, molecular data