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J Phycol. 2008 Aug;44(4):1013-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1529-8817.2008.00548.x.

MORPHOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF AUREOPHYCUS ALEUTICUS GEN. ET SP. NOV. (LAMINARIALES, PHAEOPHYCEAE) FROM THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS(1).

Journal of phycology

Hiroshi Kawai, Takeaki Hanyuda, Mandy Lindeberg, Sandra C Lindstrom

Affiliations

  1. Kobe University Research Center for Inland Seas, Rokkodai, Kobe 657-8501, JapanAuke Bay Laboratories, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute, 17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd., Juneau, Alaska 99801, USADepartment of Botany & Herbarium, #3529-6270 University Blvd., University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.

PMID: 27041620 DOI: 10.1111/j.1529-8817.2008.00548.x

Abstract

A previously unknown species of kelp was collected on Kagamil Island, Aleutian Islands. The species can be easily distinguished from any known laminarialean alga: the erect sporophytic thallus is composed of a thin lanceolate blade attaining ∼2 m in height and ∼0.50 m in width, without midrib, and the edge of the blade at the transition zone is thickened to form a V-shape; the stipe is solid and flattened, slightly translucent, attaining ∼1 m in length; the holdfast is semidiscoidal and up to 0.15 m in diameter. Anatomically, the blade has the typical trumpet-shaped hyphae characteristic of the Chordaceae and derived foliose laminarialean species (i.e., Alariaceae/Laminariaceae/Lessoniaceae). No hair pits or mucilaginous structures were observed on the blade or stipe. No fertile sporophytes were collected, but abundant juvenile sporophytes were observed in the field. In the molecular phylogenetic analyses using chloroplast rbcL gene, nuclear ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA, and mitochondria nad6 DNA sequences, the new species (Aureophycus aleuticus gen. et sp. nov.) showed a closer relationship with Alariaceae of conventional taxonomy, or the "Group 1" clade of Lane et al. (2006) including Alaria and related taxa than with other groups, although the species was not clearly included in the group. Aureophycus may be a key species in elucidating the evolution of the Alariaceae within the Laminariales. Because of the lack of information on reproductive organs and insufficient resolution of the molecular analyses, we refrain from assigning the new species to a family, but we place the new species in a new genus in the Laminariales.

© 2008 Phycological Society of America.

Keywords: Aleutian Islands; Aureophycus aleuticus gen. et sp. nov.; ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA; Laminariales; Phaeophyceae; molecular phylogeny; nad6; rbcL

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