New plastid markers for cryptophycean phylogeny and diversity studies

Abstract

Cryptophycean algae is an unique eukaryotic algae with nucleomorph, which originated from red algae, i.e. the secondary endosymbiosis. Rhodomonas and Teleaulax are important components of the coastal ecosystem and some lineages contribute to significant algal blooms from winter to spring at the southwestern region of Korea. Recent studies of cryptophycean systematics have applied complete plastid (pt) and mitochondrial (mt) DNAs. However, no comparative analysis of gene characteristics for molecular marker selection has been done because only a few taxa are available. In this study, we tested nine plastid genes (atpA, atpB, chlI, clpC, dnaK, rpoC1, secA, psaA, and tufA) with conventional well-known genes such as nuclear 18S rRNA and plastid 16S rRNAs, by using 30 selected taxa (12 cryptophycean lineages) in order to test new markers for cryptophycean phylogeny and diversity researches. We described sequence statistics such as proportions of conserved, variable, and parsimony informative sites of each gene. And compared and discussed the distribution of p-distance and saturation tests for from the inter- and intra-cryptophycean lineages and bootstrap supports for monophyletic nodes within the Cryptophytes.o significant algal blooms from winter to spring at the southwestern region of Korea. Recent studies of cryptophycean systematics have applied complete plastid (pt) and mitochondrial (mt) DNAs. However, no comparative analysis of gene characteristics for molecular marker selection has been done because only a few taxa are available. In this study, we tested nine plastid genes (atpA, atpB, chlI, clpC, dnaK, rpoC1, secA, psaA, and tufA) with conventional well-known genes such as nuclear 18S rRNA and plastid 16S rRNAs, by using 30 selected taxa (12 cryptophycean lineages) in order to test new markers for cryptophycean phylogeny and diversity researches. We described sequence statistics such as proportions of conserved, variable, and parsimony informative sites of each gene. And compared and discussed the distribution of p-distance and saturation tests for from the inter- and intra-cryptophycean lineages and bootstrap supports for monophyletic nodes within the Cryptophytes.