Desertifilum fontinale sp. nov. (Oscillatoriales, Cyanobacteria) from a warm spring in East Africa, based on conventional and molecular studies.

Abstract

Abstract:Desertifilum is a filamentous cyanobacterium of crusts and biofilms, recently described from the extreme hot and dry Thar Desert in north-western India. A new species was isolated from a warm spring near Lake Bogoria, Kenya and was characterised by light and electron microscopy and phylogenetically using the 16S rRNA gene, beta and alpha subunits including intergenic spacer (cpcBA-IGS) and 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer (ITS). The aquatic habitat of the new material from Kenya revealed a wider distribution of members of this genus. The new taxon was found to be closest to Desertifilum tharense (Oscillatoriales). The separation of the new species described here as D. fontinale sp. nov., using conventional and molecular traits, was based on differences in phenotypic features, 16S-23S ITS sequence and habitat.

A bridge too far in naming species: a total evidence approach does not support recognition of four species in Desertifilum (Cyanobacteria)

“…Reporting size dimensions as a mean ± SD without giving ranges (Dadheech et al. , Cai et al. , Sinetova et al.…”

“…Morphological characteristics for six sequenced strains of Desertifilum apart from the Mexican strain were compiled from the publications in which they were described or treated (Dadheech et al. , , Bravakos et al. , Cai et al.…”

“…Since then, three additional species have been described: Desertifilum fontinale from a warm spring in Kenya (Dadheech et al. ), Desertifilum salkalinema from an alkaline pool in Zhejiang Province, China (Cai et al. ), and Desertifilum dzianense from a crater lake in Mayotte in the Madagascar Channel of the Indian Ocean (Cellamare et al.…”

“…The simple filamentous genus Desertifilum was originally described from India's Thar desert crusts with D. tharense as the type species (Dadheech et al 2012). Since then, three additional species have been described: Desertifilum fontinale from a warm spring in Kenya (Dadheech et al 2014), Desertifilum salkalinema from an alkaline pool in Zhejiang Province, China (Cai et al 2017), and Desertifilum dzianense from a crater lake in Mayotte in the Madagascar Channel of the Indian Ocean (Cellamare et al 2018).…”

Cyano-assassins: Widespread cyanogenic production from cyanobacteria

“…The polyphasic taxonomy applied to the strains of this study revealed taxa known to be part of bloom-forming communities ( Sphaerospermopsis and Nodularia), rock-dwelling communities ( Scytonema and Tolypothrix ), and hot spring cyanobacteria mats ( Desertifilum and Gloeotrichia ) (Dadheech et al, 2014; Mazur-Marzec et al, 2015; Gkelis et al, 2017; Joanna and Andrzej, 2018). Our results revealed the presence of taxa not previously described from Greek habitats (Gkelis et al, 2016), such as Allinostoc (Saraf et al, 2018) and Oculatella (Osorio-Santos et al, 2014) and taxa previously described only from the tropical zone like Komarekiella and Kovacikia (Miscoe et al, 2016; Hentschke et al, 2017).…”