| Summary: | The cyanobacterial genus Phormidium is polyphyletic, as follows from recent molecular and phenotypic analyses. Several isolated clusters were found also in Antarctic populations. A few of them have already been described or revised on the generic level. One of the separate clusters belongs to a group of strains identified traditionally as Phormidium murrayi, described W. et G.S. West from the Antarctica in 1911. We evaluated 23 morphologically similar strains or populations resembling Ph. murrayi from the Antarctica and few other geographical regions; 6 of them were studied by us by molecular methods. Molecular analyses confirmed that Ph. murrayi represents a special taxonomic group and should be classified as a special genus in cyanobacterial taxonomy (Wilmottia gen. nov.) according to the recent “polyphasic approach”. The type species of Wilmottia, W. murrayi, was determined up to now to be characteristic for the Antarctica.
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