DNA barcoding of a new record of epi-endophytic green algae Ulvella leptochaete (Ulvellaceae, Chlorophyta) in India

Abstract

Epi-endophytic green algae comprise one of the most diverse and phylogenetically primitive groups of green algae and are considered to be ubiquitous in the world's oceans; however, no reports of these algae exist from India. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of Ulvella growing on intertidal green algae Cladophora glomerata and benthic red algae Laurencia obtusa collected from India. DNA barcodes at nuclear ribosomal DNA Internal Transcriber Spacer (nrDNA ITS) 1 and 2 regions for Indian isolates from the west and east coasts have been generated for the first time. Based on morphology and DNA barcoding, isolates were identified as Ulvella leptochaete. Phylogenetic reconstruction of concatenated dataset using Maximum Likelihood method differentiated Indian isolates from other accessions of this alga available in Genbank, albeit with low bootstrap support. Monophyly of Ulvella leptochaete was obvious in both of our phylogenetic analyses. With this first report of epi-endophytic algae from Indian territorial waters, the dire need to catalogue its cryptic diversity is highlighted and avenues of future research are discussed.

Seaweed Biodiversity of India: Reviewing Current Knowledge to Identify Gaps, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…However, U. paschima is now regarded as synonym of U. tepida [16]. The presence of U. ohnoi [82] and Ulvella leptochaete [84] in Indian water was also substantiated by molecular analysis. Molecular study of the genus Ulva from India (Kazi, 2016) also supported the proposition of U. fasciata as junior synonym to U. lactuca by O'Kelly et al [85].…”

Time Calibration of Linguistic Phylograms: A Molecular Clock for Historical Linguistics

“…Come to the era of phylolinguistics, which uses celebrated methods of molecular phylogenetics [11] to analyze linguistic "cognate" (=homologous) datasets. Phylolinguistics keep on enlightening the field of historical linguistics to divulge cryptic evolutionary relationships of languages in the similar fashion how molecular phylogenetics help in divulging evolutionary relationships of organisms [for example [12][13][14][15][16][17]. Molecular phylogenetics is such a robust tool that can do much more than revealing the evolutionary relationships; it can predict the ancestral states and can calculate the time since divergence-the time calibration of phylograms.…”

Phylogenetics: Tracing the Evolutionary Legacy of Organisms, Metastatic Clones, Bioactive Compounds and Languages

“…Using phylogenetic systematics approach our group were able to report existence of sympatric speciation in panmictic population of eukaryote (in Monostroma kuroshiense Bast a marine green algae found in SW Japan) for the first time [6]. We also discovered two species of bloomforming marine green algae endemic to India; Ulva paschima Bast and Cladophora goensis Bast [7,8], and reported for the first time the occurrence of endophytic algae in Indian Ocean [9].…”

“…Using phylogenetic systematics approach our group were able to report existence of sympatric speciation in panmictic population of eukaryote (in Monostroma kuroshiense Bast a marine green algae found in SW Japan) for the first time [6]. We also discovered two species of bloomforming marine green algae endemic to India; Ulva paschima Bast and Cladophora goensis Bast [7,8], and reported for the first time the occurrence of endophytic algae in Indian Ocean [9].A related field conceived by none other than the contemporary of Darwin and co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace, is biogeography that deals with distribution of species and ecosystems in space through deep geological time. Phylogenetic methods are now routinely used to trace patterns and routes of species' dispersal, as well as to identify geographic origin of a species, that lead to synthetic new discipline of phylogeography [10].…”