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Phylogeny of Gracilariaceae (Rhodophyta): evidence from plastid and mitochondrial nucleotide sequences
Author(s) -
Lyra Goia de M.,
Costa Emmanuelle da S.,
Jesus Priscila B.,
Matos João Carlos G.,
Caires Taiara A.,
Oliveira Mariana C.,
Oliveira Eurico C.,
Xi Zhenxiang,
Nunes José Marcos de C.,
Davis Charles C.
Publication year - 2015
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 - 10.1111/jpy.12281
Subject(s) - biology , monophyly , plastid , pantropical , phylogenetics , phylogenetic tree , evolutionary biology , dna barcoding , character evolution , taxon , red algae , molecular phylogenetics , zoology , algae , botany , genus , clade , genetics , gene , chloroplast
Gracilariaceae are mostly pantropical red algae and include ~230 species in seven genera. Infrafamilial classification of the group has long been based on reproductive characters, but previous phylogenies have shown that traditionally circumscribed groups are not monophyletic. We performed phylogenetic analyses using two plastid (universal plastid amplicon and rbc L) and one mitochondrial ( cox 1) loci from a greatly expanded number of taxa to better assess generic relationships and understand patterns of character distributions. Our analyses produce the most well‐supported phylogeny of the family to date, and indicate that key characteristics of spermatangia and cystocarp type do not delineate genera as commonly suggested. Our results further indicate that Hydropuntia is not monophyletic. Given their morphological overlap with closely related members of Gracilaria , we propose that Hydropuntia be synonymized with the former. Our results additionally expand the known ranges of several Gracilariaceae species to include Brazil. Lastly, we demonstrate that the recently described Gracilaria yoneshigueana should be synonymized as G. domingensis based on morphological and molecular characters. These results demonstrate the utility of DNA barcoding for understanding poorly known and fragmentary materials of cryptic red algae.