Coccomyxa antarctica sp. nov. from the Antarctic lichen Usnea aurantiacoatra

Abstract

The single celled green alga Coccomyxa antarctica Shunan Cao & Qiming Zhou, sp. nov. was isolated from the Antarctic torrential lichen Usnea aurantiacoatra (Jacq.) Bory. It is described and illustrated based on a comprehensive study of its morphology, ultrastructure, ecology and phylogeny. C. antarctica is a lichenicolous alga which has elongated cells and contains a parietal chloroplast as observed under the microscope. C. antarctica is clearly different from other species by phylogenetic analysis (ITS rDNA and SSU rDNA sequences), also it differs from its phylogenetic closely species C. viridis by its larger cell size.

Fatty Acid Content and Profile of the Novel Strain of Coccomyxa elongata (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta) Cultivated at Reduced Nitrogen and Phosphorus Concentrations

“…17 sequences of Coccomyxa were added from the alignment provided by Malavasi et al (2016). Also, we added recently described species C. greatwallensis (Cao et al 2018a) and C. antarctica (Cao et al 2018b).…”

Genomic analysis ofCoccomyxa viridis, a common low-abundance alga associated with lichen symbioses

“…C. viridis has been reported before from lichens with various non- Coccomyxa photobionts in several isolated reports. Species from the C. viridis clade have been independently cultured from several lichen symbioses [13,14,16]. In addition, several amplicon metabarcoding studies of lichen algae reported small numbers of reads assigned to C. viridis [20,21,29].…”

“…Coming from diverse groups and present in miniscule amounts, these 'additional' green algae have recently been termed the phycobiome [12] They are mostly detected in two ways. First, by culturing them from a lichen thallus (e.g., [13][14][15][16]). Sometimes this happens by accident, when researchers attempt to culture lichen photobionts [17].…”

Microbial community associated with the crustose lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum L. (DC.) living on oceanic seashore: A large source of diversity revealed by using multiple isolation methods

“…Whereas the 'primary photobiont', Trebouxia, was not recovered, as no specific methodology for such an isolation was used, 'additional photobionts', C. viridis and A. lobatus, were isolated. While the genus Coccomyxa, which can be lichenicolous algae or lichenized photosynthetic partners in lichens (Malavasi et al, 2016) as described in several studies (Cao et al, 2018;Gustavs et al, 2015), displays a wide variety of lifestyles and some of its strains have been identified as extremotolerant and generalists with low nutritional needs (Gustavs et al, 2015), Apatococcus taxon, striking ecological differences with the lichen photobiont (Chrismas et al, 2021;Gustavs et al, 2016), seems to be a specialized and slow-growing alga (Gustavs et al, 2016). It is interesting to note that a strain of Coccomyxa viridis was also isolated from the R. geographicum sample collected 4 years ago.…”

“…Few years ago, it was admitted that a third partner, the microbial consortia of bacteria and fungi, was part of the evolutionary, long‐term successful and intimate lichen lifestyle (Grimm et al, 2021; Grube et al, 2009; Spribille et al, 2016). Nowadays, lichens are considered as holobionts (Simon et al, 2019), an exciting reservoir and unexplored hotspot of more or less specific and persistent members of complex microbial networks (Cao et al, 2018; Cardinale et al, 2006). However, their role in adapting lichens to unfriendly environments and moreover to coastal environments is still not clear (Delmail et al, 2013).…”