Morphology, mating system and taxonomy of Volvox africanus (Volvocaceae, Chlorophyceae) from Thailand

Hisayoshi Nozaki,Ryo Matsuzaki,Wirawan Heman,Wuttipong Mahakham,Masanobu Kawachi

doi:10.1186/s40529-022-00332-1

Abstract

BackgroundThe oogamous green algal genus Volvox exhibits extensive diversity in mating systems, including heterothallism and homothallism with unisexual (male and/or female) and/or bisexual spheroids. Although four mating systems have been recognized worldwide in strains identified as “Volvox africanus”, most of these strains are extinct. However, we previously rediscovered two types of the four mating systems (heterothallic, and homothallic with male and bisexual spheroids within a clone) from an ancient Japanese lake, Lake Biwa.ResultsHere, we obtained strains exhibiting the third mating system (homothallic with unisexual male and female spheroids within a clone) from a freshwater area of Kalasin Province, Thailand. When sexual reproduction was induced in the present Thai strains, both male and female unisexual spheroids developed to form smooth-walled zygotes within a clonal culture. Phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer region-2 of nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences from all four mating systems, including the extinct strains, resolved the third mating system is basal or paraphyletic within the homothallic clade.ConclusionsThe present morphological and molecular data of the Thai strains indicate that they belong to the homothallic species V. africanus. The phylogenetic results suggested that third mating system (homothallic with separate male and female sexual spheroids) may represent an initial evolutionary stage of transition from heterothallism to homothallism within Volvox africanus. Further field collections in geologically stable intracontinental regions may be fruitful for studying diversity and taxonomy of the freshwater green algal genus Volvox.

Highlights

The oogamous green algal genus Volvox exhibits extensive diversity in mating systems, including heterothallism and homothallism with unisexual and/or bisexual spheroids
Coleman (1999) analyzed the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS)-2 of nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences from the four mating systems of “Volvox africanus” (VxAf) ”, most of the “VxAf ” strains deposited in UTEX (Starr and Zeikus 1993) were
Cultures were grown in 18 × 150-mm screw-cap tubes containing 10–11 mL artificial freshwater-6 (AF6) or Volvox thiamin acetate (VTAC) medium (Kawachi et al 2013), at 25 °C under a 14:10-h light:dark schedule, under cool-white fluorescent lamps at an intensity of 80–130 μmol m−2 s−1

Summary

Introduction

The oogamous green algal genus Volvox exhibits extensive diversity in mating systems, including heterothallism and homothallism with unisexual (male and/or female) and/or bisexual spheroids. We previously rediscovered two types of the four mating systems (heterothallic, and homothallic with male and bisexual spheroids within a clone) from an ancient Japanese lake, Lake Biwa. Starr (1971) reported four mating systems in worldwide strains of a volvocine alga identified as the single species “Volvox africanus” (“VxAf ”). Nozaki et al Botanical Studies (2022) 63:1 unavailable (Nozaki et al 2015a) This problem was partially resolved when new “VxAf ” strains representing the two mating systems were established from field-collected water samples in an ancient Japanese lake, Lake Biwa (Nozaki et al 2015a). Details of morphology and sexual reproduction of “VxAf ” strains with the other two mating systems (homothallic with separate male and female sexual spheroids, and homothallic with only bisexual spheroids) have remained unresolved

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