Premium
PORPHYRA SUBORBICULATA, PORPHYRA CAROLINENSIS AND PORPHYRA LILLIPUTIANA ‐ THREE NAMES FOR ONE SMALL PORPHYRA
Author(s) -
Broom J.E.,
Nelson W.A.,
Jones W.A.,
Yarish C.,
Aguilar Rosas R.,
Aguilar Rosas L.E.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1046/j.1529-8817.1999.00001-21.x
Subject(s) - porphyra , biology , taxon , genus , cosmopolitan distribution , correct name , ecology , zoology , evolutionary biology , algae , botany
The genus Porphyra is ancient, successful, and morphologically simple. Its members provide a particular challenge to systematists who must decide whether shared features are a result of homoplasy, or reflect recent common ancestry. Three species of diminutive Porphyra with widespread geographic origins share many common morphological features: P suborbiculata Kjellm. has been reported from the west Pacific and Indian Oceans, P. carolinensis Coll et J. Cox from the west Atlantic, and P lilliputiana W. A. Nelson, G. A.Knight et M. W. Hawkes from New Zealand. Comparison of 18S rDNA sequence data from small Porphyra thalli from Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Connecticut indicate that these three taxa in fact belong to one cosmopolitan species, which is distributed over three oceans and two hemispheres. Analysis of sequence data from introns present in the 18S rDNA and from the ITS region suggest that this distribution may be linked to human activity, and raises the question of to which geographic locality this entity is truly endemic?