Department Of Botany

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Green alga

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    European Species of Subaerial Green Alga Trentepohlia annulata (Trentepohliales, Ulvophyceae) Caused Blood Rain in Kerala, India
    (OMICS, 2015) Bast, Felix; Bhushan, Satej; John, Aijaz Ahmad; Achankunju, Jackson; MV Panikkar, Nadaraja; Hametner, Christina; Stocker-W�rg�tter, Elfriede
    In 2011, isolated parts in south Indian state of Kerala as well as neighboring Sri Lanka experienced sporadic spell of red colored “blood rain”, cause of which was later attributed to terrestrial subaerial microalgae of the genus Trentepohlia. Green algae of this genus is commonly found living in symbiosis as phycobionts of lichens in the freeliving form in adjoining tropical rain forests, however, specific identity of which have never been determined. It is known that lichens disperse small algal-hyphal packages, so-called soredia, for vegetative reproduction, which can explain the content of Trentepohlia-spores in the water. Given its extraordinary spore-dispersal mechanism via rain, we were specifically interested to know species-level identity of a randomly collected Trentepohlialean algae of “blood rain” region, and to investigate the possibility that this might had been introduced from elsewhere through areal route. Results of our comparative morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses using the nuclear ribosomal DNA Internal Transcribed Spacers region concluded that this alga is Trentepohlia annulata – a species of which no previous reports exist from India. These two geographical isolates were separated by Kimura-2-Parameter pair-wise distance of 0.06-which in turn indicate a low rate of evolution at these loci that are renowned for rapid molecular evolution, suggestive of a recent introduction. Phylogeny reconstruction using Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood methods resulted in well-resolved phylograms with a robust clade composed of these isolates. This finding indicates the existence of areal dispersal of algal spores on continental and global scales through “clouds over oceans”- a phenomenon earlier reported for bacteria and fungi, but for the first time in algae.
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    DNA barcoding of a new record of epi-endophytic green algae Ulvella leptochaete (Ulvellaceae, Chlorophyta) in India
    (Springer India, 2014) Bast, Felix; Bhushan, S.; John, A.A.
    Epi-endophytic green algae comprise one of the most diverse and phylogenetically primitive groups of green algae and are considered to be ubiquitous in the world's oceans; however, no reports of these algae exist from India. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of Ulvella growing on intertidal green algae Cladophora glomerata and benthic red algae Laurencia obtusa collected from India. DNA barcodes at nuclear ribosomal DNA Internal Transcriber Spacer (nrDNA ITS) 1 and 2 regions for Indian isolates from the west and east coasts have been generated for the first time. Based on morphology and DNA barcoding, isolates were identified as Ulvella leptochaete. Phylogenetic reconstruction of concatenated dataset using Maximum Likelihood method differentiated Indian isolates from other accessions of this alga available in Genbank, albeit with low bootstrap support. Monophyly of Ulvella leptochaete was obvious in both of our phylogenetic analyses. With this first report of epi-endophytic algae from Indian territorial waters, the dire need to catalogue its cryptic diversity is highlighted and avenues of future research are discussed. ? 2014 Indian Academy of Sciences.