The genetic diversity and phylogeny of green microalgae in the genus Choricystis (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta) in Lake Baikal

Choricystis and Lewiniosphaera gen. nov. (Trebouxiophyceae Chlorophyta), two different green algal endosymbionts in freshwater sponges

“…Choricystis parasitica was also reported from two specimens of unidentified Ephydatia species by Zhu et al ( 2016 ), which were confirmed by our study (see Table S1 ). The three lineages representing species as demonstrated in our study were also found in the phylogenies using the chloroplast rbc L and 16S (Kulakova et al 2020 ). All Choricystis endosymbionts found in freshwater sponges belonged to C. parasitica .…”

“…All Choricystis endosymbionts found in freshwater sponges belonged to C. parasitica . Only Baikalospongia intermedia and Lubomirskia abietina seemed to have C. krienitzii as endosymbionts (Kulakova et al 2020 ). However, this needs further studies and confirmation by sequencing of ITS, the commonly used marker for species delimitation in green algae.…”

“…Krienitz et al ( 1996 ) found Choricystis minor (now C. parasitica ) in two lakes Northeast Germany. Many studies showed that Choricystis is widely distributed (Hindak 1980 , 1984 , Komarek & Fott 1983 , Kulakova et al 2020 ). However, they were probably often overlooked in monitoring programs of investigation for water quality because of its cell size (<3 μm).…”

Draft Genome Sequence of the Green Microalga Chlorella sp. Strain BAC9706, Isolated from Lake Baikal, Russia

“…G reen algae of the phylum Chlorophyta are the most widespread autotrophic picoplankton in Lake Baikal (Russia) (1)(2)(3). The related algae are symbionts of freshwater sponges and were assigned to the genus Choricystis based on analysis of the 18S rRNA and rbcL genes (4,5). To expand our molecular biological knowledge of these microalgae and compare them in the future with an endosymbiotic strain, we present a draft version of the genome sequence of the Baikal autotrophic picoplankton green alga Chlorella sp.…”

Celebrating limnology in Siberia: commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Limnological Institute in Irkutsk, Russia

“…Five of these papers, all addressing different aspects of biological limnology, are presented in this special issue of Limnology. Four of the papers use molecular biology techniques to explore aspects of biodiversity or phylogenetic relationships of organisms from L. Baikal (Kulakova et al 2019;Naganawa et al 2019;Protasov et al 2019;Yakhnenko and Itskovich 2019) while the fifth paper describes trends in zoobenthic community structure in 49 lakes situated across three terrestrial biomes (steppe, forest-steppe, and taiga) in southwestern Siberia (Bezmaternykh and Vdovina 2019). Additional papers from the conference have been or will be published in Quaternary International, Journal of Great Lakes Research, Russian Journal of Ecology, and Geography and Natural Resources.…”