Pseudopolyides furcellarioides gen. et sp. nov. (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) an erect member of the Cruoriaceae based on morphological and molecular evidence

Abstract

Bárbara I., Gallardo T., Cremades J., Barreiro R., Maneiro I. and Saunders G.W. 2013. Pseudopolyides furcellarioides gen. et sp. nov. (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) an erect member of the Cruoriaceae based on morphological and molecular evidence. Phycologia 52: 191–203. DOI: 10.2216/12-040.1

Pseudopolyides furcellarioides gen. et sp. nov. (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) was described from the Atlantic coasts of the northern Iberian Peninsula based on morphological and molecular evidence. This plant was found growing in the lower intertidal to the upper subtidal of moderately exposed rocky coasts, the bases anchored to rocks and often covered by sand. Thalli were perennial, terete, dichotomously branched and erect from a mammillate crustose holdfast. Fronds were multiaxial with a compact filamentous medulla, a densely pseudoparenchymatous inner cortex and an anticlinal outer cortex. Gametophytes were dioecious and isomorphic to tetrasporophytes. Spermatangia were superficial on swollen branch tips. Gonimocarps were spindle-shaped and directed to the thallus interior, while tetrasporangia were zonate. The habit and internal structure resembled those of both Polyides rotundus (characterized by crustose holdfasts, dichotomous or trichotomous branching and similar longitudinal section) and Furcellaria lumbricalis (distinguished by internal gonimocarps and zonate tetrasporangia). All three species occasionally occurred sympatrically in the Iberian Peninsula and were easily misclassified. Molecular phylogenetic analyses placed Pseudopolyides furcellarioides within the previously monogeneric Cruoriaceae, making it the first non-crustose representative of this family.

Key Words::

• Cruoriaceae
• Furcellaria
• Gigartinales
• Iberian Peninsula
• Polyides
• Pseudopolyides furcellarioides
• Rhodophyta
• Seaweeds
• Taxonomy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank E. Ar Gall for the collection of herbarium material and silica-dried samples of Furcellaria lumbricalis and Polyides rotundus from Brittany and O. de Clerk and E. Coppejans for the loan of material from GENT and Coppejans's herbaria. J. Bryant (BM), P.A. Arsen (KMN), R. Nielsen (C), L. Pezzack (NSPM) and G. Thijsse (L) facilitated the access to various herbarium material. J.M. Salinas, J.L. Pérez-Cirera and E. Llera González provided plants and information about populations. P. Díaz Tapia helped with field work. This work is a contribution to projects PB95-0385-C06-02 (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain), CTM2007-61011 and CGL2009-09495 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain; FEDER). G.W.S. was supported by the Canadian Barcode of Life Network from Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute, NSERC and other sponsors listed at www.BOLNET.ca. Additional support was provided by the Canada Research Chair Program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. Finally, we thank the corrections and comments made by Gerry Kraft, John Huisman and an anonymous reviewer.

SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found online at http://dx.doi.org/10.2216/12-040.1.s1.