23 Phylogenetic position of Alaria Fistulosa (laminariales, phaeophyceae) based on nuclear its and plastid coding genes

Abstract

Alaria is a common kelp genus generally found in the lower intertidal and shallow subtidal regions of rocky shores in the cold waters of the northern Hemisphere. About 16 species are currently recognized worldwide and, of these, A. fistulosa is distinguished by having hollow midrib and large blades with 10–30 m in length and 30–90 cm in width. It is the only canopy‐producing kelp in the northwest Pacific, where it is restricted to the waters of north Hokkaido, Kamchatka, Aleutian Islands, and Alaska. In order to know the phylogenetic position of A. fistulosa, sequences of nr DNA ITS and plastid rbcL including spacer and psaA regions were determined in A. fistulosa and compared with homologous positions of newly sequenced putative relatives and with published sequences of other kelp species. Combined data of ITS and Rubisco spacer show that A. fistulosa was more related to the clade of Lessoniopsis and Pterygophora than to the clade of other species of Alaria, which is supported by the rbcL and psaA sequence data. The topologies from nuclear and plastid DNA sequences lead to phylogenetic independence of A. fistulosa, which is clearly different from the genus Alaria.