Taxonomy of the Dictyota ciliolata-crenulata complex (Dictyotales, Phaeophyceae)

We reassessed the taxonomy of dentate Dictyota species formerly attributed to D. ciliolata and D. crenulata. Both taxa have long been assumed to be broadly distributed in tropical to warm-temperate seas. Recent molecular data, however, provided evidence that D. crenulata constituted a complex of at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Phycologia
Main Authors: Tronholm, Ana, Afonso-Carrillo, Julio, Sansón, Marta, Leliaert, Frédérik, Fernández-García, Cindy, De Clerck, Olivier
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
DICHOTOMA DICTYOTALES
Taxonomy
NORTH-ATLANTIC
GENUS
NOV
Morphology
Molecular phylogenetics
Dictyotales
Diversity
Dictyota crenulata
Dictyota ciliolata
Brown algae
Pacific
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/4428343
http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-4428343
https://doi.org/10.2216/12-005.1
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/4428343/file/4429004
Description
Summary:We reassessed the taxonomy of dentate Dictyota species formerly attributed to D. ciliolata and D. crenulata. Both taxa have long been assumed to be broadly distributed in tropical to warm-temperate seas. Recent molecular data, however, provided evidence that D. crenulata constituted a complex of at least four species with restricted geographical distributions. Based on those results and careful morphological examination, we split D. crenulata sensu lato into D. crenulata sensu stricto restricted to Pacific Central America, D. jamaicensis with a tropical amphi-Atlantic distribution and D. canariensis and D. pleiacantha sp. nov. from Macaronesia. Morphological analysis showed that these species were distinguished by subtle morphological differences. In contrast to D. crenulata sensu lato, the wide tropical distribution of D. ciliolata was confirmed by DNA data. In addition, psbA sequence analysis did not provide evidence to segregate D. menstrualis and D. plectens from D. ciliolata.

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