Pterocladiella xiae sp. nov. (Gelidiales, Rhodophyta), a new species from southern China

ABSTRACT

Turf-forming Gelidiales frequently occur in tropical coral reef regions. It is challenging to identify species correctly due to their small size and simple morphology. In the present study, we combined morphological and molecular phylogenetics methods to study turf-forming species of the genus Pterocladiella from tropical coral reef areas in southern China. Both COI-5P and rbcL gene analyses revealed a novel species described here, Pterocladiella xiae sp. nov. The species was less than 1 cm in height, with a distinctive slender thallus, compressed percurrent axis with up to two orders of ribbon-like branches, and short warty-like branchlets which usually occurred irregularly on the upper thallus. Pterocladiella bartlettii was also recorded in China for the first time. Additional descriptions of reproductive structure in P. musciformis and P. beachiae were also documented. This study enriches our understanding of the biodiversity of Pterocladiella in China and reveals the potential diversity of small turf-forming species in tropical coral reefs.

KEYWORDS:

• COI-5P
• Coral reefs
• Pterocladiella bartlettii
• rbcL
• Turf-forming algae

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Prof. Bangmei Xia for her constructive suggestions on species description, Yongqiang Wang for his assistance in finding historical herbarium specimens in AST, Yuhang Li for his kind help with phylogenetic analyses, and International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) for editing this manuscript.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41706164, 42076089, 41876163), the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD0901500), the China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (CARS-50), the Key Deployment Project of the Center for Ocean Mega-Research of Science, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (COMS2019Q02), the Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Projects in Shandong Province (2019JZZY010815), the North Jiangsu Science and Technology Special Project (LYG-SZ201916), and the Research Fund for the Taishan Scholar Project of Shandong Province (tspd20210316).