Open AccessRelationships between the Arctic and the Antarctic cyanobacteria; three Phormidium ‐like strains evaluated by a polyphasic approach
Author(s) -
Comte Katia,
Šabacká Marie,
CarréMlouka Alyssa,
Elster Josef,
Komárek Jiří
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
fems microbiology ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.377
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1574-6941
pISSN - 0168-6496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2006.00257.x
Subject(s) - biology , phylogenetic tree , 16s ribosomal rna , arctic , taxon , polyphyly , taxonomy (biology) , internal transcribed spacer , botany , clade , ecology , zoology , gene , genetics
Selected strains of filamentous Phormidium ‐like cyanobacteria isolated from two Arctic regions (Ellesmere Island, High Canadian Arctic and Svalbard) and from Antarctica (Antarctic peninsula, South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands) were studied. The polyphasic approach used included phenotypic observations of morphological features and genotypic analyses (restriction fragment length polymorphism of 16S rRNA gene, internal transcribed space, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis). Although genotypes generally correspond to observed morphotypes, the genetic analyses revealed a high degree of biodiversity that could not be unveiled using solely morphological evaluations. According to the phylogenetic analysis, the three clones were divided into two major clades, indicating that the phylogenetic distance between Arct‐Ph5/Ant‐Ph68 and Ant‐Ph58 was so large they belonged to different genera. The polyphyletic position of strains of the genus Phormidium was confirmed by this study, attesting the need to entirely revise classification in this taxon in the future.