The Preliminary Analysis Of Molecular Phylogeny Of Marine Rhodophyta And The Taxonomic Study Of Gelidiales(Rhodophyta) From China

Many groups of Rhodophyta are economically important which play an important role in the seaweed industry, seaweed chemistry and aquaculture. Chinese traditional seaweed taxonomy has been well studied as a series of publishing of monographs. Recent studies of algal molecular systematics shed new sights in the traditional algal taxonomy, and achieved a lot of important results. However, the molecular phylogenetic study of Chinese rhodophyta is very weak.In this paper, We conducted a number of Rhodophyta biodiversity survey along Chinese coast, with a sampling collection sites coverage of China’s four major algal floras. More than 1,000 samples were collected, and 617 sequences were successfully amplified, of which 318 rbc L sequences and 299 COI sequences were generated. The rbc L sequences distributed in 15 orders, 29 families, 44 genera and 91 species(including 25 undetermined species), and COI distributed in 13 orders, 26 families, 48 genera and 96 species(including 24 undetermined species). These sequences of this study provide the baseline data for the future molecular phylogenetic studies of Chinese marine red algae or even other related marine algal flora. At the same time, 12 newly discovered taxa or new records for the Chinese marine algal flora are in progress for description. Phylogenetic analysis of 98 concatenated rbc L and COI sequences among 48 species revealed a tree that resembled the current recognized florideophyte red algal relationships, and thus 8 taxa names are updated accordingly.Based upon morphological and molecular data analysis, a systematical study of the order Gelidiales(Rhodophyta) from China are conducted. The results revealed the phylogenetic relationships between the Gelidiaceae and Pterocladiaceae species. One new genus Aphanta Tronchin & Freshwater is added and four species are newly described, namely Gelidium honghaiwanense G. C. Wang et X.L. Wang sp. nov., Gelidium yangmeikengense G. C. Wang et X. L. Wang sp. nov., Gelidium sanyaense G. C. Wang et X. L. Wang sp. nov. and Aphanta asiatica G. C. Wang et X. L. Wang sp. nov.; Gelidium tsengii was revised as a synonym of Gelidium johnstonii; the morphological variations of Gelidium crinale has been discussed. Based upon the above data, a phylogenetic analysis of Chinese order Gelidiales revealed a tree that actually represent 3 families and 5 genera.