Bodo saltans

Taxobox
color = khaki
name = "Bodo saltans"
regnum = Protista
phylum = Euglenozoa
classis = Kinetoplastea
ordo = Bodonida
genus = "Bodo"
species = "B. saltans"
binomial = "Bodo saltans"

"Bodo saltans", also published as "Pleuromonas jaculans", is a free-living nonparasitic species of kinetoplastid flagellate protozoan that is distinguished by the organism's feeding upon bacteria. "B. saltans" can be found widely distributed throughout the world in both freshwater and marine environments.

"B. saltans" is a single-celled bean-shaped organism 4 to 5 micrometers in length. It has two flagella: a short anterior projecting flagellum and a longer posterior-projecting flagellum without hairs (acronematic) that extends beyond the length of the cell. "B. saltans" secures itself to the substrate of its aquatic habitat by the tip of a posterior flagellum. Flexing of the posterior flagellum results in a twitching, jumping movement that is characteristic of this species. This type of movement is appears similar to the undulating membrane of the sexually-wiktransmitted pathogen "Trichomonas vaginalis" and can result in a false-positive diagnosis in cases where "B. saltans" is a contaminant in test samples, especially if a nonsterile saline solution has been used.

Phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial RNA editing process and inferred protein sequences in "B. saltans" appear to show that "B. saltans" diverged early on from the evolutionary line of kinetoplastids and that this species of bodonid is more closely related to the trypanosomatids than at least two species of parasitic bodonids of the genus "Cryptobia".

Analysis based on the sequence of the topoisomerase II (topo II) gene provides evidence that "B. saltans" is a predecessor of the trypanosomatids. Commonly, the molecules of mitochondrial DNA in eukaryotes is circular and replication and transcription result in topological stress that is mitigated by enzymes called topoisomerases. Kinetoplastids possess a single mitochondrion with what is perhaps the most complex network of mitochondrial "kDNA" in small and large circular forms. As a consequence, mitochondrial genes for topoisomerases are available in high quantities that make it an attractive focus of genetic study. It is also the significance of the enzyme class of topoisomerases to the function of kinetoplastids that makes the topo genes a target for the medical treatment of trypanosomial and leishmanial diseases.

In one phylogenetic tree, the parasitic kinetoplastids included two separate groups of species – "C. helicis" and "T. borreli" in one group and the trypanosomatids in the other. The non-parasitic free-living "B.saltans" and "B. uncinatus" were distributed among the two groups which implies that the bodonids such as "B. saltans", may not have been predecessors of the parasitic species. Other studies show that the trypanosomatids evolved relatively late among the kinetoplastids and constitute a monophyletic group, but that the bodonids may be paraphyletic.

References

*Blom, Daniël; Annett de Haan; Marlene van den Berg; Paul Sloof; Milan Jirku; Julius Lukes;, Rob Benne. 1998. RNA editing in the free-living bodonid Bodo saltans. Nucleic Acids Research Vol. 26, no. 5 1205-1213.
*Dolezel, D; M. Jirku, D.A. Maslov and J. Lukes. 2000. Phylogeny of the bodonid flagellates (Kinetoplastida) based on small-subunit rRNA gene sequences. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. Vol 50: 1943-1951
*Gaziová, Ivana and Julius Lukes. 2003. Mitochondrial and nuclear localization of topoisomerase II in the flagellate Bodo saltans (Kinetoplastida), a species with non-catenated kinetoplast DNA. Jan 16th JBC Papers, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
*Hänel K. 1979. Systematik und Ökologie der farblosen Flagellaten des Abwassers. Arch Protistenkd 121: 73-137.
*Hausmann, Klaus; Hulsmann, Norbert; Radek, Renate; Protistology (3rd Edition) 2003. E. Scheizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.
*Lee, W. J., D.J. Patterson. 1998 Diversity and Geographic Distribution of Free-Living Heterotrophic flagellates. Protist 149: 229-243, updated with data from Al Qassab et al. (2002).
*Smith, A; S Portsmouth, B Curran, D Warhurst, P Kell and N Saulsbury. 2002. TV or not TV? Sex. Transm. Inf. 78;185-186
*Vørs N. 1992. Heterotrophic amoebae, flagellates and heliozoa from the Tvärminne area, Gulf of Finland, in 1988-1990.