New Species of Chloroidium (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta) from East Asia.

Andrey A Gontcharov,Vyacheslav Yu Nikulin,Rezeda Z Allaguvatova,Arthur Yu Nikulin,Veronika B Bagmet,Shamil R Abdullin

doi:10.3390/plants10122560

Andrey A Gontcharov, Vyacheslav Yu Nikulin + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10122560

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Abstract

Chlorella-like green algae that reproduce only asexually by immotile autospores or motile zoospores are the most typical inhabitants of non-aquatic environments. They have a simple morphology that hampers their differentiation, but algae of such habit represent a diverse array of lineages, which are mostly in the classes Chlorophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae. One of these lineages is the order Watanabeales (Watanabea clade; Trebouxiophyceae), which comprises 10 genera that share a distinct mode of reproduction through unequally sized autospores. Most of these genera account for a few species that are rarely recorded in nature. In contrast, the genus Chloroidium is one of the most species-rich and widely distributed members of the order. Three strains of coccoid green alga were isolated during a study of soil algae in the temperate monsoon climate zone of Asia. These strains are described here as a new species, Chloroidium orientalis. SSU and ITS rDNA sequence data, morphological characteristics, and life cycle features differentiate these strains from known members of the genus.

Highlights

We examined three algal strains isolated from soil (Primorsky Territory, Russia) and concrete wall biofouling (Jilin Province, China) using both phenotypic features and molecular markers
The phylogenetic analysis of concatenated SSU rDNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA revealed that these strains represent an undescribed Chloroidium taxon
Using molecular characteristics and phenotypic features, we found evidence to describe our strains as a new species, Chloroidium orientalis

Summary

Introduction

This morphotype is typical of many photobionts of lichens as well They have a simple morphology that hampers taxonomic differentiation, but algae with such a habit represent a diverse array of lineages belonging to the classes Chlorophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae according to the molecular phylogenetic data [1,2,3,4,5,6]. One of these lineages is the Watanabea clade in the Trebouxiophyceae, which predominantly comprises terrestrial microalgae that are currently classified in 10 genera. Morphological identification of genera and infrageneric taxa comprising Watanabea is difficult and could only be achieved with the establishment of their exact molecular phylogenetic affiliation

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