Coolia malayensis Leaw, P.-T. Lim et Usup 2010
Coolia malayensis is a benthic dinoflagellate found in tropical waters near Malaysia. It differs from C. monotis in having a third postcingular plate larger than the fourth postcingular plate and fine perforations in the thecal pores.
Coolia malayensis is a pigmented dinoflagellate that lives attached to submerged substrates such as sand, macroalgae and coral.
From Leaw et al. 2010:
Cells round with length of 28-33 μm and width of 27-32 μm. Thecal plate formula: Po, 3', 7", 6(c), 6?(s), 5''', 2''''. Theca plates smooth with round to oval pores with average diameter of 0.3 μm. Plates with radially arranged minute perforations of 0.05 μm average diameter located inside the pores. Apical pore 5 μm long. First apical plate 1' narrow and oblong. Sixth precingular plate 6" the widest plate in the epitheca. Third postcingular plate 3''' the widest plate in the hypotheca, occupying mid-dorsal of the hypotheca. Nucleus located in the dorsal part of the hypotheca. Cells photosynthetic, GenBank accession number of ITS region: AF244945.
C. malayensis ITS region has 28% divergence from C. monotis (Leaw et al. 2010).
From Leaw et al. 2010:
Cells are round in dorsoventral and lateral view. The thecal surface is smooth with small pores irregularly scattered. Individual thecal plates are delineated by faint sutures and smooth intercalaries. The sulcus is deep, short and widely flared toward the antapex. The sulcal list extends from 5''' and is thin, covering the right part of the sulcus. 1'''' has a wide left sulcal list.
C. malayensis has the smallest cell size within the Coolia genus.
C. malayensis were observed to occur concurrently with Ostreopsis ovata and O. lenticularis (Leaw et al. 2010).
C. malayensis was found in Malaysian waters attached to brown and red seaweeds such as Sargassum, Padina and Turbinaria. Very few cells were found associated with coral fragments and sand. None were found with green algae. (Leaw et al. 2010)