![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
M.C. Margheri, S. Ventura, J. Kaštovský and J. Komárek. 2008. The taxonomic validation of the cyanobacterial genus Halothece. Phycologia 47: 477–486. DOI: 10.2216/07-87.1.
In 1998, Garcia-Pichel and coworkers studied 13 strains of extremely halotolerant, unicellular cyanobacteria. One strain, which was isolated from a coastal salty habitat in Baja California, Mexico, was found to represent a genetically distinct subcluster, different from another related coherent group of 12 morphologically similar types. This subcluster was designated as ‘true Halothece’, in comparison with ‘Euhalothece’ strains. The genetic characters clearly indicated their separation of Halothece at the generic level (less than 91% of genetic similarity), but the formal description, corresponding with bacteriological or botanical nomenclatoric rules, was never published. The present article comprises the valid description of the genus Halothece based on the type strain MPI 96P605, supported by new original studies of the morphological, ecophysiological and ultrastructural variability of the type strain.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Prof. Dr Ferran Garcia-Pichel has discovered with collaborators the genus Halothece and has the greatest merit on the basic characterisation of this cyanobacterial taxon. However, he rejected, unfortunately, his coauthorship in this article with the necessary taxonomic validation of this taxon. We thank him for all his remarks and notes to this problematic. Authors thank also Dr Jaroslava Komárková for help with microphotodocumentation; Dr Josef Sulek for EM preparation; Eliana Maffettone, Cristina Mascalchi, Maria Angela Mugnai and Elisa Soldati for help with DNA sequencing; and Dr Keith Edwards for the language correction. The study was supported by grants of GA ASCR No IAA6005308 and AV0Z60050516, by the EU project MIDI-CHIP contract no. EVK2-CT-1999-00026, and by the CNR-AVCR bilateral agreement (S. Ventura and J. Komárek).