Morphological and molecular assessment of native carrageenophyte Hypnea valentiae (Cystocloniaceae, Gigartinales) in Indian Subcontinent
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Phycological Society
Abstract
Hypnea valentiae is an important red alga commercially cultivated in various parts of the world for the production of carrageenan. Presented in this report is findings of morphological and molecular observations of naturally-occurring populations of this alga collected from west and east coasts of India. Both the isolates had similar external as well as microscopic morphology. Nuclear ribosomal DNA Internal Transcribed Spacer-1 (ITS1) sequences from these geographical isolates had 4.35 x 10 -1 Tamura-3-Parameter (T3P) pairwise distance between them, which indicate significant evolutionary differences accumulated over time. In comparison, T3P distance between related genera Kappaphycus and Eucheuma was 1.85 x 10 -1 . In our phylogeny reconstruction using Bayesian Inference, both the isolates formed a well- supported clade along with the only available accession of this genus at ITS1 locus, indicating affiliation of both the isolates in this genus.
Interestingly, isolate from the west coast was more basal in the phylogram, which suggests phylogenetically primitive position of this population.
Newly generated DNA barcodes of the geographic isolates of this native carragenophyte in this study is expected to be a key in tracing its further
dispersal routes, either natural or deliberate. This is the first report on the comparative morphological and molecular assessment of Hypnea from
India.
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Keywords
Red algae, Seaweed, Carrageenan, Genetic Diversity, Indian Ocean, ITS
Citation
BAST, F., BHUSHAN, S. AND JOHN, A.A. 2014. Morphological and molecular assessment of native carrageenophyte Hypnea valentiae (Cystocloniaceae, Gigartinales) in Indian Subcontinent Phykos 44(1) 52-58 ISSN: 0554-1182