Circumstantial evidence of life history events in loricate choanoflagellates

Abstract

Sex is found in all major eukaryotic groups of organisms. It has been known for some time that the choanoflagellates also possess the genes involved in meiosis and a full sexual cycle was also recently accounted for in Salpingoeca rosetta. With reference to the loricate choanoflagellates the current status is that only circumstantial evidence, from wild material of Bicosta spinifera, exists in favour of documenting division patterns that go beyond plain asexual division, and that has the potential to represent stages in a sexual life cycle. Here we present further evidence from wild material documenting possible morphotype changes that might similarly indicate the existence of complex life cycles. In this particular case, it revolves around the existence of so-called ‘combination loricas’ (i.e. two loricas that occur physically united), representing consistent species combinations from the genera Acanthocorbis and Stephanoeca.