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Phylogenetic diversity of 18S rDNA sequences of dictyostelids from Amnat

Charoen Province, Thailand

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 Mycosphere 9(2): 202–214 (2018) www.mycosphere.org ISSN 2077 7019
Article
Doi 10.5943/mycosphere/9/2/4
Copyright © Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Phylogenetic diversity of 18S rDNA sequences of dictyostelids from

Amnat Charoen Province, Thailand
Rukseree K1, Wonganun K2, Palittapongarnpim P2,3, Ajawatanawong P2*
1
Department of Sciences and Liberal Arts, Mahidol University, Amnatcharoen Campus, Mueng, Amnat Charoen 37000,
Thailand
2
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Rama VI Road, Phayathai, Bangkok 10400
Thailand
3
National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), 111 Thailand Science Park, Phahonyothin Road,
Khlong Nueng, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
*
Corresponding Author

Rukseree K, Wonganun K, Palittapongarnpim P, Ajawatanawong P 2018 – Phylogenetic Diversity

of 18S rDNA Sequences of Dictyostelids from Amnat Charoen Province, Thailand. Mycosphere 9(2),
202–214, Doi 10.5943/mycosphere/9/2/4

Abstract
Dictyostelids, a group of social amoebae, are one of the major eukaryotic microbes in soil.
They play an important role in the turnover of nutrients and minerals and also in bacterial population
control in nature. Species diversity of these microbes has been surveyed globally, but surveys in
Thailand are rare. We collected 73 isolates of dictyostelids from soils in two districts of Amnat
Charoen Province, Thailand. The majority of dictyostelids recovered from Amnat Charoen Province
belong to the genus Dictyostelium, with 48.0%. The 5’-end of the 18S rDNA gene was amplified and
sequenced using the Sanger sequencing approach. Phylogenetic trees were reconstructed using three
different methods. These were neighbour-joining (NJ), maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian
inference (BI). The resulting phylogeny suggests that five genera of dictyostelids (Cavenderia,
Heterostelium, Raperostelium, Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium) were found in Amnat Charoen
Province, with Dictyostelium as the dominant group. These data are the first on the phylogenetic
diversity of dictyostelids in north-eastern Thailand and will be useful in the management of natural
and microbial resources.

Key words – dictyostelids – 18S rDNA – phylogenetics – diversity

Introduction
Dictyostelids are a group of cellular slime molds that live in soil and water. These microbes
belog to the supergroup “Amoebozoa”, which is the sister clade of the superkingdom Opisthokonta
(Animals + Fungi) in the tree of life (Cavalier-Smith 2003, Fiore-Donno et al. 2010). Dictyostelids
possess a complex life-cycle, with both unicellular and multicellular asexual stages, as well as sexual
reproduction, which is rarely observed (Romeralo et al. 2012). The best-known species is
Dictyostelium discoideum, which is a well-studied model organism for both its genotypic and
phenotypic variation (Eichinger et al. 2005, Roberge-White & Katoh-Kurasawa 2011, Bozzaro 2013,
Loomis 2016).

Submitted 4 February 2018, Accepted 10 March 2018, Published 15 March 2018

Corresponding Author: Pravech Ajawatanawong – e-mail – pravech.aja@mahidol.edu 202
 The traditional classification of dictyostelid cellular slime molds is based solely on the
morphology of their fruiting body (sorocarp). Based on this, they were divided into three genera,
namely Dictyostelium, Polysphondylium and Acytostelium. In general, the genus Dictyosteleum
produces unbranched or irregularly-branched sorophores, while the genus Polysphondyleum
produces fruiting bodies with whorled or laterally branched sorophores, with or without sori at the
tips of the whorl. Sorophores of both genera develop a cellular stalked structure. However, the genus
Acytostelium is very different. They produce tiny sorophores with an acellular stalk (Raper 1984).
In 2018, a major taxonomic revision was carried out on the dictyostelids, based on 18S rDNA
gene signature sequences and some morphological derived characteristics (synapomorphies). As a
result, the taxon was divided into 12 genera (Sheikh et al. 2018). These 12 genera were classified
into two major orders: Acetosteliales and Dictyosteliales. Apart from these two orders, a third taxon
is also identified: genus Synstelium (formerly known as the “polycarpum complex” in Romeralo et
al. (2010, 2011)). The order Acetosteliales comprises two families (Acytosteliaceae and
Cavenderiaceae). Acytosteliaceae comprises three genera: Acytostelium (previously Group 2A in
Romeralo et al. (2010, 2011), Heterostelium (previously Group 2B) and Rostrostelium. The family
Cavenderiaceae has one genus (Cavenderia), which was previously known as Group 1. The order
Dictyosteliales contains two families (Dictyosteliaceae and Raperosteliaceae) and a single genus
(Coremiostelium). The family Dictyosteliaceae is separated into two genera, Dictyostelium
(previously Group 4 in Romeralo et al. (2010, 2011)) and Polysphondylium (formerly the violaceum
complex). The family Raperosteliaceae contains four genera: Tieghemostelium (formerly Group 3A),
Hagiwaraea (formerly Group 3B), Raperostelium (formerly Group 3C) and one novel genus,
Speleostelium.
There are a handful of reports on species diversity of dictyostelids in Southeast Asia, which is
one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots (Cavender 1976b, Romeralo et al. 2011, Yulo & dela Cruz
2011, Seephueak & Petcharat 2014). Studies of dictyostelid biodiversity in Thailand have been
carried out only in the northern (Chiang Mai province) and southern (Nakhon Si Thammarat and
Songkhla provinces) regions of the country (Cavender 1976b, Romeralo et al. 2011, Seephueak &
Petcharat 2014). There are at least eight species isolated from soil sample from the north of
Thailand—Dictyostelium mucoroides Bref. (1869), D. purpureum Olive. (1901), Hagiwaraea
lavandula (Raper & Fennell) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh et al. 2018)
(formerly D. lavandulum (Raper & Fennell)), Cavenderia bifurcata (Cavender) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh
& Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh et al. 2018) (formerly D. bifurcatum Cavender (1976a)), H.
vinaceofusca (Raper & Fennell) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh et al. 2018)
(formerly D. vinaceo-fuscum Raper & Fennell (1967)), Coremiostelium polycephalum (Raper) S.
Baldauf, S. Sheikh, Thulin & Spiegel, comb. nov. (Sheikh et al. 2018) (formerly D. polycephalum
Raper (1956)), Heterostelium pallidum (Olive) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh
2018) (formerly Polysphondylium pallidum Olive (1901)) and Polysphondylium violaceum Bref.
(1884) (Cavender 1976a). Another team of investigators isolated 10 species from the rubber-leaf
litter from the south of Thailand, including D. dichotomum Vadell & Cavender (2007), C.
macrocarpa (Vadell & Cavender) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh 2018)
(formerly D. macrocarpum Vadell & Cavender (2007)), Tieghemostelium menorah (Vadell &
Cavender) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh 2018) (formerly D. menorah Vadell
& Cavender (2007)), C. microspora (H. Hagiw.) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh
2018) (formerly D. microsporum H. Hagiw.(1978)), Raperostelium minutum (Raper) S. Baldauf, S.
Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh 2018) (formerly D. minutum Raper (1941)), D. mucoroides
Bref., D. rosarium Raper & Cavender (1968), Heterostelium multicystogenum (S. Kawak. & H.
Hagiw.) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (Sheikh 2018) (formerly P. multicystogenum S.
Kawakami & Hagiwara (2008)), Heterostelium pallidum (Olive) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin,
comb. nov. and P. violaceum Bref. (Seephueak & Petcharat 2014). Moreover, there was a huge
survey of the diversity of eumycetozoans, including dictyostelids, under the “Global Biodiversity
Survey of Eumycetozoans” project during the last decade. They reported five new species from

203
Thailand, three of them are classified in the genus Cavenderia and the other two are classified in the
family Raperosteliaceae (Romeralo et al. 2011).
Herein, we surveyed the phylogenetic diversity of dictyostelid cellular slime molds in two
districts in Amnat Charoen Province in north-eastern Thailand. A total of 73 isolates of dictyostelids
were identified, based on the partial sequences of the 18S rDNA gene. Those sequences were then
used to reconstruct phylogenetic trees using three different methods in order to molecularly identify
the lineages of dictyostelids that were recovered from Amnat Charoen Province.

Materials & Methods

Study Sites and Soil Samples

We collected eight soil samples from two districts (Phana and Mueang) in Amnat Charoen
Province, north-eastern Thailand (Fig. 1). The province is located in the Mekong Valley. The average
altitude of Amnat Charoen Province is about 68 meters above sea level. Most of the areas are covered
with loamy sand and lateritic soil. The climate in Amnat Charoen is classified as tropical savanna. The
dry season runs from February to April, the rainy season runs from May until October, and the winter
is between November and January. The average temperature over the year is 28.7°C and the
accumulated rainfall averages 158.1 millimetres per year.
Two of the soil samples were collected from Phana District, and other six samples were collected
from Mueang District (Table 1). All soil samples were collected in December 2014 and July 2015.
Soil was collected from a depth of about 0.5–1 cm from the surface of the ground under shrubs or
trees. Each sample of 10–20 g of soil was collected and stored in a Ziplock plastic bag at room
temperature without exposure to light. All samples were delivered to the laboratory for subsequent
analyses within 24 hours.

Figure 1 – Map of Thailand and the sampling sites. Map on the left-handed side shows the location
of Amnat Charoen Province (labeled in black) in the northeast of Thailand. The map on the right-
handed side shows the districts in Amnat Charoen Province. Six soil samples (S046, S047, S048,
S049, S050 and S051) were collected from Mueang District and two samples (S002 and S003) were
collected from Phana District.

204
Table 1 Geographical locations and collection dates of soil samples from eight sites in Amnat
Charoen Province.

Sample Geographical Location Collection

District
Number Latitude Longitude Elevationa (m) Date
Phana S002 15°40'13.45"N 104°51'35.54"E N/A Dec 2014
Phana S003 15°40'10.98"N 104°51'35.47"E N/A Dec 2014
Mueang S046 15°53'29.0"N 104°37'17.9"E 179 Jul 2015
Mueang S047 15°53'31.0"N 104°37'16.6"E 179 Jul 2015
Mueang S048 15°53'32.7"N 104°37'19.0"E 182 Jul 2015
Mueang S049 15°53'25.7"N 104°37'24.8"E 179 Jul 2015
Mueang S050 15°53'24.6"N 104°37'26.1"E 174 Jul 2015
Mueang S051 15°53'29.4"N 104°37'16.7"E 168 Jul 2015
a
above sea level
N/A not available

Isolation of Dictyostelids
To isolate dictyostelids from soil samples, five grams of each soil samples were suspended in
50 ml sterilized water to get a final soil suspension concentration of 10% weight per volume. Two-
hundred microliters of the soil suspension were then mixed with 300 µl of E. coli ATCC 8739 before
it was spread on hay infusion (HI) agar plates. The HI plates were incubated at 22ºC for four days
before they were checked for dictyostelid fruiting bodies. The HI plates were observed for 10 days
before discarding. Individual dictyostelid fruiting bodies were selected and transferred to non-nutrient
agar (NNA) plates along with 300 µl of E. coli ATCC 8739. The E. coli ATCC 8739 was cultured in
Luria-Bertani (LB) broth at 37ºC overnight before use. All isolates were serially transferred to new
NNA plates until the culture was deemed pure. The concentration of dictyostelids in the soil was
calculated by counting the number of clones and multiplying this number by the dilution factor (×50)
to get the number of dictyostelids per gram of soil. This method was modified from the one previous
described (Cavender & Raper 1965, Yulo & de la Cruz 2012).

DNA Extraction, Amplification and Sequencing of the 18S rDNA Gene

All isolates of dictyostelids were co-cultured with E. coli ATCC 8739 on NNA plates at 22ºC
for four days before harvesting dictyostelid cells for genomic DNA extraction. To avoid over-
contamination of the E. coli genome, the dictyostelid cells were removed from the zone of clear E.
coli growth. The cells were then suspended in 200 µl of TE buffer. The genomic dictyostelid DNA
was then extracted with the AxyPrep Blood Genomic DNA Miniprep Kit (Axygen Biosciences, Union
City, CA).
An oligonucleotide primer pair, 18S_FA (AAC CTG GTT GAT CCT GCC AG) and 18S_RB
(TGA TCC TTC TGC AGG TTC AC), was used for amplification of the dictyostelid 18S rDNA gene
(Medlin et al. 1988). Each PCR reaction contained 5 µl of 10x PCR buffer (Biotechrabbit GmbH,
Germany), 1.5 mM MgCl2, 200 µM of each dNTP, 0.2 µM of each primer, 1.25 U of Taq polymerase
(Biotechrabbit GmbH, Germany), 5 ng of genomic DNA template, and the final volume of the reaction
was adjusted to 50 µl by adding sterile deionized water. The reaction was incubated at 95°C for 5 min
for pre-PCR, followed by 95°C for 30 sec, 56°C for 1 min, and 72°C for 2 min for 30 cycles, and
finally 72°C for 10 min. PCR amplicons were purified using the FavorPrepTM GEL/PCR Purification
kit (Favorgen Biotech Corporation, Taiwan) before they were directly sequenced at Macrogen (Korea)
using the 18S_FA primer.

Sequence Analyses
We identified the putative genus of all 73 dictyostelid isolate sequences by comparing the
acquired sequence to previously deposited sequences using GenBank’s BLASTn feature (Altschul et
al. 1990). To prepare the dataset for phylogenetic analysis, the 73 newly acquired 18S rDNA partial

205
sequences (accession number MG754973–MG755045) were combined with 43 published sequences
that were broadly sampled from the ten genera (Romeralo et al. 2011) (Table 2).

Table 2 List of the 43 previously published nucleotide sequences used in the dataset. Accession
numbers refer to the NCBI database (Altschul et al. 1990).

Former Accession
Genus Species Strain Name References
Clade Number
Cavenderia Group 1 C. aureostipes YA6 AM168083 Schaap et al. 2006
C. deminutiva MexM19A AM168092 Schaap et al. 2006
C. exigua TNS-C-199 AM168085 Schaap et al. 2006
C. fasiculata SH3 AM168087 Schaap et al. 2006
C. macrocarpa MGE2 HQ141519 Romeralo et al. 2011
C. microspora TNS-C-38 AM168090 Schaap et al. 2006
C. multistipes UK26b AM168070 Schaap et al. 2006
Dictyostelium sp.a TAS30A HQ141516 Romeralo et al. 2011
Dictyostelium sp.a TH1A HQ141515 Romeralo et al. 2011
Dictyostelium sp.a TH18B HQ141517 Romeralo et al. 2011
Dictyostelium sp.a TH39A HQ141518 Romeralo et al. 2011
Dictyostelium sp.a THC11X HQ141523 Romeralo et al. 2011
Acytostelium Group 2A A. amazonicum HN1B1 HQ141511 Romeralo et al. 2011
A. singular FDIB HQ141514 Romeralo et al. 2011
Heterostelium Group 2B H. asymmetricum Landolt HN20C HQ141503 Romeralo et al. 2011
H. pallidum TNS-C-98 AM168103 Schaap et al. 2006
H. album PN500 AM168104 Schaap et al. 2006
Polysphondylium sp.a TH12A HQ141504 Romeralo et al. 2011
Tieghemostelium Group 3A T. menorah M1 AM168073 Schaap et al. 2006
Hagiwaraea Group 3B H. rhizopodium AusKY-4 AM168063 Schaap et al. 2006
Raperostelium Group 3C R. gracile TNS-C-183 AM168078 Schaap et al. 2006
R. minutum AY040332 direct submission
Dictyostelium sp.a TH14B HQ141491 Romeralo et al. 2011
Dictyostelium Group 4 D. citrinum OH494 AM168033 Schaap et al. 2006
D. discoideum 91HO9 AM168040 Schaap et al. 2006
D. mucoroides Sweden20 HQ141482 Romeralo et al. 2011
D. mucoroides S28b AM168054 Schaap et al. 2006
D. mucoroides var. FOII1 AM168055 Schaap et al. 2006
stoloniferum
D. purpureum cavender HQ141481 Romeralo et al. 2011
D. rosarium M45 AM168065 Schaap et al. 2006
Dictyostelium sp. Laos1 HQ141483 Romeralo et al. 2011
Dictyostelium sp. Laos5 HQ141484 Romeralo et al. 2011
Synstelium Polycarpum S. polycarpum VE1b AM168057 Schaap et al. 2006
Complex
S. polycarpum Ohio AM168058 Schaap et al. 2006
Coremiostelium Polycephalum C. polycephalum Landolt #2132 B-9c HQ141489 Romeralo et al. 2011
Complex
C. polycephalum Landolt #1675 GUAM HQ141490 Romeralo et al. 2011
C. polycephalum Landolt #1130 SS3B HQ141488 Romeralo et al. 2011
C. polycephalum MY1-1 AM168056 Schaap et al. 2006
Polysphondylium Violaceum P. laterosorum AE4 AM168046 Schaap et al. 2006
Complex
P. patagonicum Cavender H-H 1 GQ496156 Vadell et al. 2011
P. violaceum 209 HQ141486 Romeralo et al. 2011
P. violaceum P6 AM168108 Schaap et al. 2006
Dictyostelium sp.a Laos4 HQ141485 Romeralo et al. 2011
a
Taxonomy of these sequences was not updated in the GenBank taxonomy database.

206
 The sequences in the dataset were aligned by MUSCLE (Edgar 2004) via SeaView version 4.6.1
(Gouy et al. 2010). After the alignment was manually edited, the conserved regions were manually
identified and extracted from the DNA multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) based on the guideline
suggestion from the conserved module in SeqFIRE version 1.0.1 (Ajawatanawong et al. 2012). The
edited alignment was used to perform the phylogenetic analysis with three different methods: (i)
neighbour-joining (NJ), (ii) maximum likelihood (ML) and (iii) Bayesian Inference (BI). The
sequence alignment matrix and all phylogenetic trees were submitted to TreeBase under the accession
http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S22363.
The NJ tree was reconstructed using the BioNJ tree building algorithm in SeaView. The
‘nucleotide substitution matrix’ was calculated from the original sequence alignment (Observed). For
ML, we used PhyML version 3.0 (Guindon et al. 2010) via the SeaView package with the GTR model
whereby the ‘nucleotide equilibrium frequencies’ and ‘proportion of the invariable sites’ were
optimized by the program. The tree searching was done using nearest-neighbour interchange (NNI).
The bootstrap analyses were done using 1,000 replications of pseudo-alignment data in both the NJ
and ML methods. The BI analyses were performed with MrBayes version 3.2.6 (Huelsenbeck &
Ronquist 2001, Ronquist & Huelsenbeck 2003). The Bayesian tree was run with the GTR+I+ model
of nucleotide substitution and tree searching was performed with four simultaneous chains for 2
million generation. The first 25% of generations were discarded as the burn-in to prevent sampling
before reaching stationarity.

Results
We isolated 73 dictyostelid cellular slime molds from six of the eight soil samples taken in
Amnat Charoen Province, Thailand during December 2014 and July 2015. Four samples from
Mueang District and two samples from Phana District contained dictyostelids. Identification of the
dictyostelids was done for all 73 isolates. Results showed that the dictyostelids recovered from Amnat
Charoen Province belonged to five genera (Table 3). Thirty-nine isolates (53.4%) were recovered
from Phana District and 34 isolates 46.6%) were recovered from Mueang District.

Table 3 Overview of the dictyostelids recovered in this study, according to the new taxonomy
(Sheikh et al. 2018). The genera of all dictyostelid isolates from Amnat Charoen Province were
identified using molecular phylogenetic analyses of partial sequences of the 18S rDNA gene.

Number of Isolates (%)

Genus Total Number (%)
Phana District Mueang District
Cavenderia 10 (13.7) 7 (9.6) 17 (23.3)
Acytostelium 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Rostrostelium 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Heterostelium 0 (0.0) 1 (1.4) 1 (1.4)
Speleostelium 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Tieghemostelium 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Hagiwaraea 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Raperostelium 0 (0.0) 5 (6.8) 5 (6.8)
Dictyostelium 14 (19.2) 21 (28.8) 35 (48.0)
Polysphondylium 15 (20.5) 0 (0.0) 15 (20.5)
Coremiostelium 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Synstelium 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
Total 39 (53.4) 34 (46.6) 73 (100.0)

Phylogenetic analyses of Dictyostelids in Amnat Charoen Province

In order to reconstruct the tree using the 5’-end regions of the 18S rDNA gene, we tested the
specificity of clade identification using the 5’-end partial sequence of the 18S rDNA gene from the
43 published isolates (data not show). Then, all 73 novel dictyostelid isolates and 43 published

207
sequences were subjected to phylogenetic analyses with three different methods: neighbor-joining
(NJ), maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI).
Although the trees reconstructed using the different methods of analysis were different in the
deep branching patterns, they all clustered the novel isolates into 10 monophyletic groups. The taxa
within each clade were consistently clustered together in all three phylogenetic analyses. This
suggests that the partial sequences of the 18S rDNA gene has enough phylogenetic signal to group
dictyostelids into the appropriate clade. The novel dictyostelid isolates were found in five genera:
Cavenderia, Heterostelium, Raperostelium, Dictyostelium, and Polysphondylium. These findings
were supported with both significant bootstrap values and posterior probabilities (Fig. 2). However,
we did not find any isolates from Amnat Charoen Province that belong to the genera Coremiostelium
(previously known as the polycephalum complex), Hagiwaraea, Tieghemostelium (previously Group
3), Speleostelium, Synstelium (previously called the polycarpum complex), Acetostelium (previously
Group 2A) or Rostrostelium (Fig. 2, Table 3).

Cavenderia (Formerly Group 1)

From the tree, we see that this clade contains 29 isolates of Cavenderia spp., with 17 isolates
from Amnat Charoen Province (Figure 2). All taxa in this genus from Amnat Charoen Province form
a monophyletic group together with other four new species of Thai isolates of Cavenderia (presented
as Dictyostelium in the tree) from another study (Romeralo et al. 2011). Within the Thai subclade,
the sequences from Amnat Charoen Province split into two unique clusters. One cluster contains 10
isolates (ACR003, ACR004, ACR005, ACR020, ACR021, ACR022, ACR023, ACR024, ACR031
and ACR032) from Phana District (Table 3), sharing 100% sequence similarity. The Phana clade is
a sister group of Dictyostelium sp. TH1A. Another seven isolates of Cavenderia spp. (ACR051,
ACR052, ACR056, ACR059, ACR066, ACR068 and ACR070) are from Mueang District (Table 3).
These sequences were also 100% similar but they appeared to branch early relative to other taxa in
the subgroup.

Heterostelium (Formerly Group 2)

Only one isolate (ACR072) of a dictyostelid was recovered from Mueang District (Table 3) in
Amnat Charoen Province which was identified to the genus Heterostelium sp. (previously classified
as Group 2). This isolate is a sister taxon of the clade including Polysphondylium sp. TH12A from
Thailand, Heterostelium album PN500 (formerly Polysphondylium pallidum PN500) and
Heterostelium asymetricum HN20C. The posterior probability support for the genus Heterostelium
in this study was 1.00.

Raperostelium (Formerly Group 3)

Five isolates (ACR054, ACR063, ACR064, ACR067 and ACR071) of dictyostelids from
Mueang District (Table 3) in Amnat Charoen Province were classified as belonging to genus
Raperostelium. All Raperostelium taxa from Amnat Charoen Province form a monophyletic group
with statistically significate support (1.00 Bayesian inference posterior probability, 100% ML
bootstrap support and 100% NJ bootstrap support) with 100% sequence similarity. Another new
species from Thailand identified in an earlier study (Dictyostelium sp. TH14B; Romeralo et al. 2011)
was the sister clade of the Amnat Charoen cluster, which also grouped with Dictyostelium sp. TH14B
and Raperostelium gracile TNS-C-183. The sequences of the isolates AusKY4 and M1 were
reclassified to be two different genera, Hagiwaraea rhizopodium AusKY4 and Tieghemostelium M1,
respectively.

208
Figure 2 – The phylogeny of 73 novel dictyostelid isolates from Amnat Charoen Province based on a partial sequence of the 18S rDNA gene. The tree
was reconstructed using Bayesian inference. All taxa from Amant Charoen are shown in red. The tree was rooted using order Dictyosteliales (Baldauf
et al. 2018, Sheikh et al. 2018). Each genus is labeled with a different bar color. Families are indicated by colored boxes. The grey boxes show the orders.
The posterior probabilities were shown on the deep branches. The scale bar indicates the rate of nucleotide substitution per site.

209
Dictyostelium (Formerly Group 4)
The genus Dictyostelium is the largest group of dictyostelids (N=35 isolates) in Amnat Charoen
Province. All Amnat Charoen isolates form a unique subclade, which has D. purpureum Cavender
as a sister taxon. Within the Amnat Charoen subclade, the isolates are divided into two subgroups.
All taxa in the first group, including the isolates ACR001, ACR002, ACR016, ACR017, ACR018,
ACR019 and ACR038, were isolated from soil in Phana District. They form a monophylytic group
and are the first split from the other Amnat Charoen isolates with significant statistical support (1.00
Bayesian inference posterior probability, 97% ML bootstrap support and 78% NJ bootstrap support).
The second and third groups are sister clades to each other. The second group is a mixed-taxa group
comprised of the 28 remaining taxa isolated and also has significant statistical support (0.96 Bayesian
inference posterior probability, 71% ML bootstrap support and 58% NJ bootstrap support). Some
isolates from Phana (ACR013, ACR014, ACR015, ACR030, ACR036, ACR037 and ACR039) also
form another clade. The average sequence similarity of the partial 18S rDNA sequences of all 35
novel isolates is 99.5%.

Polysphondylium (Formerly Violaceum Complex)

We found 15 isolates from Phana District in Amnat Charoen Province that were clustered into
the genus Polysphondylium (previously called the violaceum complex). Both morphological and
molecular approaches identified the taxa to the genus Polysphondylium. The average sequence
similarity of all Amnat Charoen isolates in this taxon is 100%. The tree shows that the nucleotide
sequences of Amnat Charoen isolates have high similarity with other published sequences from this
genus.

Phylogenetic Diversity of Dictyostelids in Amnat Charoen Province

We found three dictyostelid genera (genus Cavenderia, Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium) in
Phana District, and four genera (genus Cavenderia, Heterostelium, Raperostelium and Dictyostelium)
in Mueang District (Table 3). Genus Dictyostelium is the most abundant in the province (48%). Three
of these dictyostelid genera from Amnat Charoen are found either in only Phana or Mueang District.
Isolates of Heterostelium and Raperostelium were found only in Mueang District with 1.4% and 6.8%
relative frequency, respectively. Inversely, isolates of Polysphondylium were found only in Phana
District (20.5%).
The number of dictyostelids recovered from each genus varied from site to site (Table 4). Three
soil samples (S002 from Phana District; S046 and S051 from Mueang District) contained
dictyostelids from several genera. The average number of dictyostelid from soils in Phana and
Mueang Districts are 105.85 and 237.5 clones per gram of soil, respectively. Dictyostelids belonging
to the genus Dictyostelium were found in five of the eight soil samples (62.5%).

Discussion
We isolated 73 dictyostelids from six soil samples collected from two districts (Phana and
Mueang) in Amnat Charoen Province, Thailand (Fig. 1, Table 1). Comparison of homologous
sequences in NCBI’s GenBank database suggests that isolates belonging five dictyostelid genera
were found in Amnat Charoen Province (Table 3). Further phylogenetic analysis of the partial
sequences of the 18S rDNA gene identified the dictyostelids in Amnat Charoen into five genera, with
high statistical support. These are Cavenderia (previously Group 1), Heterostelium (previously
Group 2A), Raperostelium (previously Group 3C), Dictyostelium (previously Group 4) and
Polysphondylium (previously the violaceum complex) (Fig. 2). Two of the five genera (Cavenderia
and Dictyostelium) were found in both districts in Amnat Charoen Province, whereas Heterostelium
and Raperostelium were only found in Mueang District and Polysphondylium was found only in
Phana District (Table 3). Dictyostelium appeared to be the most abundance genus in Amnat Charoen
(Table 4). In addition, some soil samples contain dictyostelids belonging to more than one genera,
whereas others contain dictyostelids from a single genus (Table 4).

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Table 4 Approximate number of dictyostelid cellular slime molds from soils in Phana and Mueang
Districts in Amnat Charoen Province, according to the recently revised taxonomy (Sheikh et al.
2018). The dictyostelid abundances were calculated as number of clones per gram of soil. The codes
S002 and S003, and S046–S051 represent the soil samples from Phana and Mueang Districts,
respectively.

Genus Relative abundance of dictyostelids (CPG) Total (net)

Phana Dist. Mueang District abundance
S002 S003 S046 S047 S048 S049 S050 S051
Cavenderia 100.0 0.0 175.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 275.0
Acytostelium 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Rostrostelium 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Heterostelium 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 50.0
Speleostelium 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Tieghemostelium 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Hagiwaraea 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Raperostelium 0.0 0.0 75.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 175.0
Dictyostelium 16.7 45.0 325.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0 175.0 611.7
Polysphondylium 50.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 50.0
Coremiostelium 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Synstelium 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Number of genera 3.0 1.0 3.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 2.0
Total Abundance 166.7 45.0 575.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 50.0 225.0 1,166.7

In this study, we identified the phylogenetic position of the novel isolates of dictyostelids from
the partial sequences of the 18S rDNA gene. The phylogenetic relationships among the dictyostelids
were inferred from nearly complete sequences of the 18S rDNA (SSU) gene (Schaap et al. 2006,
Romeralo et al. 2010, Romeralo et al. 2011, Baldauf et al. 2018, Sheikh et al. 2018). This study
showed that the phylogenetic signal in this gene region is strong enough to classify the dictyostelids
into the appropriate genera even with only the 5’-end partial sequences of the gene. This is supported
by initial analyses on the generic identification of known taxa using the 5’-end partial sequence of
previously published sequences, which were correctly identified through three different molecular
phylogenetic reconstruction methods (data not shown). Although the phylogenetic signal in this
region is powerful enough to differentiate and identify the appropriate genus of sequences, the signal
is not sufficient for resolving the deep branching patterns of dictyostelids (Romeralo et al. 2011,
Sheikh et al. 2018).
The major contribution of this study is its description of the phylogenetic diversity of
dictyostelids in Amnat Charoen Province, which was apparently higher than any previous surveys in
Thailand (Schaap et al. 2006, Romeralo et al. 2010, Romeralo et al. 2011). This is the first attempt
to reveal the basic population structure of dictyostelids in this province using phylogenetic analyses.
A previous report by Romeralo et al. (2011) identified three genera of dictyostelids in Thailand
(Cavenderia, Heterostelium and Raperostelium), while we found five genera of dictyostelids
(Cavenderia, Heterostelium, Raperostelium, Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium). This suggests that
the phylogenetic diversity of dictyostelids in Thailand is still poorly known.
The most abundant genus in Amnat Charoen is Dictyostelium, which is consistent with previous
reports of the distribution of dictyostelids in the north of Thailand, where D. purpureum and D.
mucoroides Bref. were found to be the most abundant taxa in Chiang Mai and Chiang Dao (Cavender
1976b). Surprisingly, Dictyostelium is less frequently found in the south of Thailand (Seephueak &
Petcharat 2014). It possible that Dictyostelium may be the most common genus of dictyostelids in
Thailand. The genus Cavenderia is the second most commonly found in both Amnat Charoen
Province and southern Thailand. As shown in the previous report, Cavenderia macrocarpa (Vadell
& Cavender) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (previously D. macrocarpum Vadell &

211
Cavender)) and C. microspora (H. Hagiw.) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (previously
D. microsporum H. Hagiw.) are the second most commonly found species in southern Thailand as
well (Seephueak & Petcharat 2014). However, C. bifurcatum (Cavender) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh &
Thulin, comb. nov. (formerly D. bifurcatum Cavender), is less frequently found in the north of
Thailand (Cavender 1976b).
The genus Tieghemostelium and Raperostelium were less frequently recovered in our study
compared to another study in the south of Thailand, which reported that Tieghemostelium menorah
(Vadell & Cavender) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (previously D. menorah Vadell &
Cavender) and R. minutum (Raper) S. Baldauf, S. Sheikh & Thulin, comb. nov. (previously D.
minutum Raper) are more common (Seephueak & Petcharat 2014). Surprisingly, these genera have
never been reported from the north of Thailand, at least in Chiang Mai (Cavender 1976b, Romeralo
et al. 2011). The genus Polysphondylium is rare throughout Thailand (Cavender 1976b, Seephueak
& Petcharat 2014).

Conclusion
This is the first report of dictyostelids in Amnat Charoen Province, Thailand. We found five
genera of dictyostelids in northeastern Thailand. Among those genera, Dictyostelium and Cavenderia
are the most common, which is consistent with patterns seen throughout the country. Our study
revealed a clearer picture of the phylogenetic diversity of dictyostelids in Thailand. However, more
surveys are needs to represent the entire distribution of dictyostelids. A full understanding of the
dictysotelid distribution will be useful for natural resource management, and particularly for
microbial diversity management.

Acknowledgements
We thank Pensri Whiting for facilitating soil collection in Phana District. We also thank
Nalumon Thadtapong and Phajongjit Karraphan for the preparation and maintenance of dictyostelid
stock cultures. This work was funded by Mahidol University and also supported by the Talent
Management program of Mahidol University, Thailand.

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