Phylogeny of Phyllophoraceae (Rhodophyta, Gigartinales) reveals Asterfilopsis gen. nov. from the Southern Hemisphere

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Martha S. Calderona & Sung Min Booa*a Department of Biology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea* Corresponding author (smboo@cnu.ac.kr).Abstract:We investigated the phylogenetic position of Ahnfeltiopsis furcellata and Gymnogongrus disciplinalis from Peru and Chile using nuclear large-subunit ribosomal RNA, mitochondrial COI and plastid rbcL sequences and morphological examination. Both the combined (LSU + COI + rbcL) and rbcL data sets revealed that A. furcellata and G. disciplinalis consistently formed a clade with two Peruvian taxa. The form and development of the reproductive structures of these species supported the molecular phylogeny and underlined the fact that the clade of A. furcellata was distinct from other genera of Phyllophoraceae. We therefore describe Asterfilopsis gen. nov. and transfer A. furcellata and G. disciplinalis to the new genus. Asterfilopsis was characterised by (1) having medullary cells radially surrounded by clusters of carposporangia and connected to some of them, (2) the presence of ostioles instead of specialised carpostomata, and (3) the presence of terminal tubular gonimoblasts penetrating the cystocarp boundary. We also describe two new species, Asterfilopsis centralis and A. piurana, likely misidentified earlier as A. furcellata.