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What's on your boots : An investigation into the role we play in protist dispersal

Perrigo, Allison L. LU ; Romeralo, Maria and Baldauf, Sandra L. (2012) In Journal of Biogeography 39(5). p.998-1003
Abstract

D. M. Wilkinson (2010, Journal of Biogeography, 37, 393-397) suggested that anthropogenic dispersal is an understudied and potentially important factor in terrestrial protist biogeography. We investigated human footwear as a potential vector of dictyostelids, a diverse group of amoebae that includes both geographically restricted and cosmopolitan species. Eighteen pairs of boots were examined and dictyostelids were isolated from nearly all samples larger than 5.0g. In total, six dictyostelid isolates were recovered, corresponding to four species -Dictyostelium minutum, D. sphaerocephalum, D. leptosomopsis and a new species, Polysphondylium sp. 1. Myxogastrid amoebae and acrasid-like aggregations were also observed. Thus anthropogenic... (More)

D. M. Wilkinson (2010, Journal of Biogeography, 37, 393-397) suggested that anthropogenic dispersal is an understudied and potentially important factor in terrestrial protist biogeography. We investigated human footwear as a potential vector of dictyostelids, a diverse group of amoebae that includes both geographically restricted and cosmopolitan species. Eighteen pairs of boots were examined and dictyostelids were isolated from nearly all samples larger than 5.0g. In total, six dictyostelid isolates were recovered, corresponding to four species -Dictyostelium minutum, D. sphaerocephalum, D. leptosomopsis and a new species, Polysphondylium sp. 1. Myxogastrid amoebae and acrasid-like aggregations were also observed. Thus anthropogenic dispersal of naked amoebae appears to occur. The possible role of variations in dictyostelid fruiting body morphologies in dispersal potential is also discussed. These results support Wilkinson's proposal and suggest that dictyostelids may be a useful group with which to study anthropogenic dispersal of terrestrial protists.

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Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Anthropogenic biogeography, Dictyostelium, Dispersal vectors, Global dispersal, Protist distribution, Social amoebae, Terrestrial microorganisms
in
Journal of Biogeography
volume
39
issue
5
pages
6 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:84859850251
ISSN
0305-0270
DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02691.x
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
8c697181-d592-44bd-880d-b156586110e1
date added to LUP
2023-02-22 11:42:50
date last changed
2023-02-24 13:17:41
@article{8c697181-d592-44bd-880d-b156586110e1,
  abstract     = {{<p>D. M. Wilkinson (2010, Journal of Biogeography, 37, 393-397) suggested that anthropogenic dispersal is an understudied and potentially important factor in terrestrial protist biogeography. We investigated human footwear as a potential vector of dictyostelids, a diverse group of amoebae that includes both geographically restricted and cosmopolitan species. Eighteen pairs of boots were examined and dictyostelids were isolated from nearly all samples larger than 5.0g. In total, six dictyostelid isolates were recovered, corresponding to four species -Dictyostelium minutum, D. sphaerocephalum, D. leptosomopsis and a new species, Polysphondylium sp. 1. Myxogastrid amoebae and acrasid-like aggregations were also observed. Thus anthropogenic dispersal of naked amoebae appears to occur. The possible role of variations in dictyostelid fruiting body morphologies in dispersal potential is also discussed. These results support Wilkinson's proposal and suggest that dictyostelids may be a useful group with which to study anthropogenic dispersal of terrestrial protists.</p>}},
  author       = {{Perrigo, Allison L. and Romeralo, Maria and Baldauf, Sandra L.}},
  issn         = {{0305-0270}},
  keywords     = {{Anthropogenic biogeography; Dictyostelium; Dispersal vectors; Global dispersal; Protist distribution; Social amoebae; Terrestrial microorganisms}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{998--1003}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Journal of Biogeography}},
  title        = {{What's on your boots : An investigation into the role we play in protist dispersal}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02691.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02691.x}},
  volume       = {{39}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}