Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2018-01-19
Page range: 215–224
Abstract views: 18
PDF downloaded: 15

Reinstatement of Phrix (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta) based on DNA sequence analyses and morpho-anatomical evidence

Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Main Street, Newburgh AB41 6AA, UK current address: Aberdeen Oomycete Laboratory, International Centre for Aquaculture Research and Development, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
University of Michigan Herbarium, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108, USA
Faculty of Marine Bioscience, Fukui Prefectural University 1-1, Gakuen-cho, Obama, Fukui 917-0003, Japan
School of Biosciences 2, University of Melbourne, Parkville Victoria 3010, Australia
Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Main Street, Newburgh AB41 6AA, UK
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Área Botánica, Casilla 787, Santiago, Chile
Bezhin Rosko, 40 rue des pêcheurs, 29250 Santec, France
taxonomy nomenclature marine flora Chile Algae

Abstract

Living material of a marine red alga consisting of a prostrate basal system and small erect blades was isolated from laboratory-incubated substratum collected in a sea cave at 7 m depth on Easter Island in the Southeast Pacific. The alga in culture was morphologically identified as Apoglossum gregarium (E.Y. Dawson) M.J. Wynne. Molecular analyses (rbcL, LSU, COI) revealed that this alga was not closely related to Apoglossum ruscifolium (Turner) J. Agardh, the generitype. It also was genetically and morphologically distinct from Paraglossum and other genera in the Delesseriaceae. Therefore, it is proposed that the genus Phrix J.G. Stewart be reinstated. Because the taxonomic synonym Membranoptera spatulata E.Y. Dawson has priority over Hypoglossum gregarium E.Y. Dawson, the binomial Phrix spatulata (E.Y. Dawson) comb. nov. is effected as the name for the sole species currently recognized in this genus of the Delesseriaceae (Rhodophyta). This is a new record of the species from Chile. The basal system in culture developed from numerous coalescent uniseriate filaments from which the blades arose and showed this isolate to be a male with spermatangial sori.