The current state of DNA barcoding of macroalgae in the Mediterranean Sea : presently lacking but urgently required

The research work disclosed in this publication is partially funded by the ENDEAVOUR Scholarship Scheme (Malta)-Group B – National Funds. FCK would also like to thank the UK Natural Environment Research Council (grants NE/D521522/1, NE/J023094/1, 2025/WP 4.5), the TOTAL Foundation (Project “Diversity of brown algae in the Eastern Mediterranean”) and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) pooling initiative, which is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. AFP was funded by the project IDEALG (France: ANR-10-BTBR-04).Peer reviewedPostprin

The Mediterranean deep-water kelp Laminaria rodriguezii is an endangered species in the Adriatic Sea

Acknowledgments Thanks are due to Klaus Lüning for a gametophyte culture of L. abyssalis, and to Britta Schaffelke for a herbarium specimen of L. rodriguezii from the western Mediterranean. We are grateful to the Total Foundation (Paris) for funding this study within the framework of the project “Brown algal ecology and biodiversity in the eastern Mediterranean Sea”, and to the MASTS pooling initiative (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland, funded by the Scottish Funding Council and contributing institutions; grant reference HR09011), as well as Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports for supporting project “Benthic communities in the Adriatic Sea (Project ID: 0001005)”. Open access via Springer Compact AgreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Kuwaitiella rubra gen. et sp. nov. (Bangiales, Rhodophyta), a new filamentous genus and species from the north-western Indian Ocean

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to Bivin Thomas, Pupa Kumai and Hedda Weitz for helping in the laboratory and improving this manuscript, to Ioanna Kosma for diving, to Yusuf Buhadi for assistance during field work, archiving and preparation of herbarium specimens, and to Tatiana Mikhaylova for micrographs of previously collected filamentous red algae from Kuwait. We are grateful to La′ala Kuwait Real Estate Company and especially Mr. Fawaz Al-Marzouq for providing the salinity data. The present work is part of MHH's PhD thesis ‘Macroalgal biodiversity of Kuwait, with special emphasis on the vicinity of desalination plants’ funded by a PhD fellowship from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. FCK received support from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland pooling initiative. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. Work of AFP was in part supported by the project IDEALG (France: ANR-10-BTBR-04). Research Funding Agence Nationale de la Recherche. Grant Number: 10-BTBR-04 Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland IDEALG. Grant Number: ANR-10-BTBR-04 Scottish Funding Council. Grant Number: HR09011 Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of SciencesPeer reviewedPublisher PD

New records and observations of macroalgae and associated pathogens from the Falkland Islands, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

Subantarctic and Antarctic regions remain little explored with regards to their seaweed diversity. This study is based upon collections in the early 1970s and 2007–2013. It is supported by sequencing COI (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I) and reports new records for four species of brown algae Hincksia granulosa, Hincksia sandriana, Myriotrichia clavaeformis, Syringoderma australe), four red algae (Erythrotrichia carnea, Paraglossum salicifolium, Phycodrys antarctica, Plumariopsis eatonii), one green alga (Chaetomorpha aerea) and of the oomycete Anisolpidium ectocarpii. A further four brown algae are reported at genus level and discussed (Cladostephus sp., Colpomenia sp., Dictyota sp., Punctaria sp.). Observations of the biology of three brown algal taxa (Cladothele decaisnei, Geminocarpus geminatus, Halopteris obovata) from the region are also reported here

Iodine and fluorine concentrations in seaweeds of the Arabian Gulf identified by morphology and DNA barcodes

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) for PhD funding for Hanan Al-Adilah. We are thankful the sequencing facility in Kuwait University (Project # GS01/02) and Department of Marine Sciences for using their facilities and labs. We would equally like to thank the UK Natural Environment Research Council for their support to FCK (program Oceans 2025 – WP 4.5 and grants NE/D521522/1 and NE/J023094/1). This work also received support from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland pooling initiative. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Juvenile morphology of the large Antarctic canopy-forming brown alga, Desmarestia menziesii J. Agardh

Open Access via Springer Compact Agreement. We are grateful to the UK Natural Environment Research Council for funding to FCK (grants NE/D521522/1 and NE/J023094/1), in particular through the Collaborative Antarctic Science Scheme (Grant CASS-134, 2017) to FCK and LSP. Funding for cruise-based observations in 2019 was from US National Science Foundation award OPP-1744550 to CDA. We thank Kate Stanton, Teresa Murphy and Ben Robinson (British Antarctic Survey) for support with diving operations around Rothera in January–February 2018, and also Richard L. Moe (UC Berkeley) for locating specimens corresponding to the morphology described here in the UC collection. Special thanks are due to Charlie Bibby (Financial Times) for taking professional photographs of the unknown Desmarestia sp. in the aquarium of the Bonner Lab at Rothera (Fig. 2a). We would also like to thank Richard L. Moe (UC Berkeley) and Christian Wiencke (AWI Bremerhaven) for their very helpful reviews of this paper. Also, the MASTS pooling initiative (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland, funded by the Scottish Funding Council and contributing institutions; grant reference HR09011) is gratefully acknowledged for supporting FCK. This research contributes to the SCAR Ant-ERA research programme.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Microarray estimation of genomic inter-strain variability in the genus Ectocarpus (Phaeophyceae)

<p/> <p>Background</p> <p>Brown algae of the genus <it>Ectocarpus </it>exhibit high levels of genetic diversity and variability in morphological and physiological characteristics. With the establishment of <it>E. siliculosus </it>as a model and the availability of a complete genome sequence, it is now of interest to analyze variability among different species, ecotypes, and strains of the genus <it>Ectocarpus </it>both at the genome and the transcriptome level.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used an <it>E. siliculosus </it>gene expression microarray based on EST sequences from the genome-sequenced strain (reference strain) to carry out comparative genome hybridizations for five <it>Ectocarpus </it>strains: four <it>E. siliculosus </it>isolates (the male genome strain, a female strain used for outcrosses with the genome strain, a strain isolated from freshwater, and a highly copper-tolerant strain), as well as one strain of the sister species <it>E. fasciculatus</it>. Our results revealed significant genomic differences between ecotypes of the same species, and enable the selection of conserved probes for future microarray experiments with these strains. In the two closely related strains (a male and a female strain used for crosses), genomic differences were also detected, but concentrated in two smaller genomic regions, one of which corresponds to a viral insertion site.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The high variability between strains supports the concept of <it>E. siliculosus </it>as a complex of cryptic species. Moreover, our data suggest that several parts of the <it>Ectocarpus </it>genome may have evolved at different rates: high variability was detected particularly in transposable elements and fucoxanthin chlorophyll a/c binding proteins.</p

Genetic diversity of Ectocarpus (Ectocarpales, Phaeophyceae) in Peru and northern Chile, the area of origin of the genome-sequenced strain

International audienceThe origin of the Ectocarpus strain used for genome sequencing (the ‘genome strain’) was Peru, where no Ectocarpus had been reported previously. To study the genetic diversity in the region and to increase the number of individuals from this area available for genetic experiments, 119 new Ectocarpus strains were isolated from eight localities along the 3000 km of coastline from central Peru to central Chile.Internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) genotyping revealed nine different genotypes, five of which were endemic to the area studied and three of which were previously unknown.Individuals of the same genotype as the genome strain occurred from Peru to northernmost Chile, representing 61% of the samples in this area, from which five more genotypes were isolated. Further south, down to central Chile, most individuals belonged to Ectocarpus siliculosus, Ectocarpus fasciculatus and Ectocarpus crouaniorum. In sexual crosses, the genome strain and the new isolates of the same genotype were fully compatible.Sequences from four nuclear and cytoplasmic genetic markers (ITS1, ITS2, Rubisco spacer and Cytochrome‐c oxidase subunit 3 (cox3)) separated the genome strain from the known species of Ectocarpus. It may in future be recognized as a separate species

Seaweed biodiversity in the south-western Antarctic Peninsula: Surveying macroalgal community composition in the Adelaide Island / Marguerite Bay region over a 35-year time span

The diversity of seaweed species of the south-western Antarctic Peninsula region is poorly studied, contrasting with the substantial knowledge available for the northern parts of the Peninsula. However, this is a key region affected by contemporary climate change. Significant consequences of this change include sea ice recession, increased iceberg scouring and increased inputs of glacial melt water, all of which can have major impacts on benthic communities. We present a baseline seaweed species checklist for the southern Adelaide Island and northern Marguerite Bay region, combining data obtained during a small number of surveys completed in 1973–1975 and a 6-week intensive diving-based field campaign in 2010–2011. Overall, with a total of 41 macroalgal species recorded (7 brown, 27 red, 6 green, 1 chrysophyte), the region is species-poor compared to the north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and even more so in comparison with the sub-Antarctic. The key canopy-forming species is Desmarestia menziesii, which is abundant in Antarctic Peninsula waters, but lacking in the sub-Antarctic. Himantothallus grandifolius, which is a common species further north in the Antarctic phytobenthos, was absent in our recent collections. This paper also reports the first record of Aplanochytrium sp. (Labyrinthulomycetes) from this part of Antarctica and in association with Elachista sp

The Pseudoautosomal Regions of the U/V Sex Chromosomes of the Brown Alga Ectocarpus Exhibit Unusual Features

International audienceThe recombining regions of sex chromosomes (pseudoautosomal regions, PARs) are predicted to exhibit unusual features due to their being genetically linked to the nonrecombining, sex-determining region. This phenomenon is expected to occur in both diploid (XY, ZW) and haploid (UV) sexual systems, with slightly different consequences for UV sexual systems because of the absence of masking during the haploid phase (when sex is expressed) and because there is no homozygous sex in these systems. Despite a considerable amount of theoretical work on PAR genetics and evolution, these genomic regions have remained poorly characterized empirically. We show here that although the PARs of the U/V sex chromosomes of the brown alga Ectocarpus recombine at a similar rate to autosomal regions of the genome, they exhibit many genomic features typical of nonrecombining regions. The PARs were enriched in clusters of genes that are preferentially, and often exclusively, expressed during the sporophyte generation of the life cycle, and many of these genes appear to have evolved since the Ectocarpales diverged from other brown algal lineages. A modeling-based approach was used to investigate possible evolutionary mechanisms underlying this enrichment in sporophyte-biased genes. Our results are consistent with the evolution of the PAR in haploid systems being influenced by differential selection pressures in males and females acting on alleles that are advantageous during the sporophyte generation of the life cycle