![Sample our Bioscience journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5925/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Bioscience.jpg"})
Abstract:
During a broad survey of the stream algae of California, a rare and unusual green alga was encountered. Samples were collected in three sites, one 200 m from a stream outlet into the Pacific Ocean and the others 6–20 km inland from the ocean. We initially identified the alga as Friedaea torrenticola Schmidle, which had been previously reported from California by G.M. Smith in 1933. However, additional observations and analysis led us to conclude that the specimen represented a new species of the primarily marine genus Ochlochaete. Ochlochaete incrustans sp. nov. grows in dense, lime-encrusted mats in fast-flowing streams. The thallus is a branched filament terminating in slightly clavate cells. Some intercalary cells are furnished with long, colourless setae. Transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed that the pyrenoid is traversed by a single, straight thylakoid similar to the ulvophycean alga Phaeophila. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the new species based on the nuclear-encoded 18S rDNA and chloroplast-encoded tufA gene sequences revealed that it is most closely related to Ochlochaete hystrix Thwaites (Ulvaceae, Ulvophyceae).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP), California State Water Resources Control Board, for providing the periphyton samples containing O. incrustans. We also thank Christina Fuller for her enthusiastic and capable assistance with fieldwork. We are grateful to Drs Lilian Busse and Theo Nikoforov for German translation of CitationSchmidle (1905). We gratefully acknowledge Dr Steve Barlow at the San Diego State University Electron Microscope Facility for his assistance with the TEM work and Dr Don Charles for providing microscopic photographic facilities at ANSP. J.D.H. and R.M.M. acknowledge support from NSF grant DEB 1036478.