We are happy to announce that we have published three new Macrostomum species that have resulted from field collections by members of the Schärer lab in the Mediterranean and in two sites in Australia (see also here).
One species, Macrostomum janickei Schärer 2019, was first collected and maintained by a former PhD student of the Schärer lab, Tim Janicke, and it is named in his honour. Moreover, Tim has since actually received a permanent CNRS position close to the original sampling site near Montpellier, so it seemed appropriate to consider that this should be Tim's worm from now on.
The other two species were collected during a field trip to Austalia, which I made together with my current PhD student, Jeremias Brand, in early 2017. One of the species, Macrostomum cliftonensis Schärer and Brand 2019, was collected on the shores of Lake Clifton, a hypersaline lake south of Perth in Western Australia. This species is considered a highly suitable Macrostomum model species, since it does not share the complex karyotype and genome organisation that we have recently discovered in Macrostomum lignano.
And the third species, Macrostomum mirumnovem Schärer and Brand 2019, was collected in several locations close to Queenscliff, Victoria. It carries this name due to its truly miraculous karyotype organisation, which is based on an unusual ground pattern with nine chromosomes that is even more complex than that observed in M. lignano (for more details see here).
Welcome to the world (of science), dear worms.
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