Morphological observation, life history and rbcL gene sequence analysis of a new species, Grateloupia variata sp. nov. (Halymeniaceae, Rhodophyta) from Qingdao, China

ABSTRACT

Grateloupia variata sp. nov. H. W. Wang (Halymeniaceae, Rhodophyta) is newly described from Qingdao, China. The results indicated that: (1) thalli are cartilaginous or gelatinous in texture; (2) thalli are constricted at the base with frequent proliferations; (3) the end portion of branches are irregular, wide, flat or ungulate, split; (4) the cortex is 50–80 μm thick, consisting of four to six layers of cells; the medulla is 10–15 μm long and 1–3 μm wide, consisting of densely and irregularly intertwined filaments; (5) six-celled carpogonial ampullae branched and five-celled auxiliary cell ampullae branched; they are of the typical Grateloupia-type; (6) tetraspores and carpospores grow directly into discoid crusts through initial cell division and are of the immediate discal type; (7) Grateloupia variata sp. nov. shows a typical triphasic life history with homotypic gametophytes, carposporophytes and tetrasporophytes, and a typical homotypic alternation of generations; and (8) the rbcL sequences show no pairwise divergence and the species form a small single monophyletic subclade within the Grateloupia clade. Morphological observations, life history and molecular analysis support G. variata as a new species.

RESPONSIBLE EDITOR:

• Mirta Teichberg

KEYWORDS:

• Grateloupia variata sp.nov
• Halymeniaceae
• life history
• morphological
• rbcL gene
• Rhodophyta

Acknowledgements

We thank Guo Shaoru, Guan Yun, Liu Miao and Yu Ling of Liaoning Normal University for their technical assistance. We thank Dr Chen Le of Shanxi Normal University for running the Bayesian phylogenetic tree.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant numbers 30870161 and 31270251.