Symbiochlorum hainanensis gen. et sp. nov. (Ulvophyceae, Chlorophyta) isolated from bleached corals living in the South China Sea.

ABSTRACT

Light/scanning electron/transmission microscopy-based morphological analyses and multiple nucleotide sequences-based molecular phylogenetic analyses are used to identify and assess the phylogenetic position of a new unidentified green alga isolated from bleached corals living in the South China Sea. This new unidentified green alga is a unicellular marine alga and has uninucleate vegetative cells and multiple chloroplasts with a pyrenoid. It can form aplanosporangium covered by cell walls and reproduces by releasing autospore. These features differ substantially from those of the two genera Ignatius and Pseudocharacium. Those two genera have been accommodated in the Ignatius clade. Nucleotide sequences of the nuclear small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (18S rRNA), internal transcribed spacer 2 of ribosomal RNA gene (ITS2) and ribulose-1,5 bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit gene (rbcL, partial) are obtained and compared with published green algal sequences. The results from the morphology, ultrastructure, and multiple nucleotide sequences data support the placement of the new unidentified green alga in Ulvophyceae. This new unidentified isolate is described as Symbiochlorum hainanensis gen. et sp. nov., a new sister lineage to the Ignatius clade, Ulvophyceae, Chlorophyta.