한국에서 최초로 발견된 Haematococcus

Abstract

The genus Haematococcus is a green micro-algae which is known as a richest source of astaxanthin. In order to find any species of the useful genus from Korea, we searched various areas and found a putative Haematococcus patch on the roof of a research building at Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI). For identification of the organism found, an axenic culture was made, and the morphological and the molecular characters were examined. The morphological study with the light microscopy shows that the organism looks similar to Haematococcus species. Molecular analysis was done with 18s rDNA and rbcL sequences. The sequence of 1,748 bp of 18s rDNA is highly similar to those of H. lacustris and H. pluvialis (99 and 98%, respectively). In its molecular phylogeny, the organism was placed within the Haematococcus genus with high bootstrap support (100%). The phylogenetic analysis of the rbcL gene also demonstrated that the isolated organism belongs to the Haematococcus genus. On the other hand, the rbcL gene sequence (1,052 bp) differs by more than 5% from those of the known Haematococcus species, implying that the organism is a separate species level taxon compared to the known species. Therefore, we report the newly found organism as a new species in the genus Haematococcus.